Ambassador Himalee Arunatilaka
Ambassador Himalee Arunatilaka joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in July 1998.
Immediately prior to her appointment as the Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva, Ms Arunatilaka served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador in Nepal from October 2019 to December 2022.
In the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka, she headed the Africa Affairs Division and the International Security & Counter-Terrorism Division as Director-General in 2019. She has also served in the Political Affairs/Europe, CIS and Americas Division as the Acting Director General from 2010 to 2014, during which time Sri Lanka hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting. Prior to that Ms Arunatilaka served in the Counter Terrorism Unit and the Public Communications Division of the Ministry.
Her overseas assignments include Canberra, where she served as the Deputy High Commissioner from August 2015-December 2018, Sri Lanka Embassy in Paris, as Minister/Head of Chancery (2006- 2009) and the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the UN in Geneva as First Secretary (2000-2003).
In January 2015, Ms Arunatilaka was seconded to the Presidential Secretariat as the Director/Foreign Affairs, where she worked closely with the Senior Advisor to the President on Foreign Affairs Mr. Jayantha Dhanapala, until August 2015.
She has represented Sri Lanka as a member of Government delegations to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Colombo (2013), United Nations General Assembly in New York (2012 and 2013) and St Petersburg International Economic Forum (2011). She also accompanied the Government Delegation for Talks with the LTTE on the Ceasefire Agreement in Geneva handling media relations in 2006.
Prior to joining the Foreign Service Ms Arunatilaka has worked with the Women and Media Collective and the Sri Lanka Women’s NGO Forum for Beijing ’95, in Colombo.
Ms Arunatilaka is an alumna of the George C Marshal European Centre for Security Studies, Garmisch, Germany, Daniel K Inouye Asia Pacific Centre for Security Studies, Honolulu, Hawaii and the Pakistan Foreign Service Academy, Islamabad.
She holds a Master of Arts Degree from the Middlebury College-School in France, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree (with Major in French) from the University of the South, (Sewanee) in Tennessee, USA.
Ms Arunatilaka speaks Sinhalese (mother tongue), English and French. She enjoys classical music and yoga. She is married to Mr. Nayana Serasinghe.
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