Ambassador-designate to Kingdom of Netherlands assumes duties

The newly appointed Ambassador-designate Rekha Gunasekera

The newly appointed Ambassador-designate of Sri Lanka to the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Rekha Gunasekera assumed duties at the Embassy of Sri Lanka in the Netherlands on 10 May. 

Her assumption of duties was marked by a simple ceremony organised by the staff of the Sri Lanka Embassy.

In her address to the staff of the Embassy, the Ambassador-designate referred to the longstanding, historical and vibrant bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the need to further elevate trade, investment, and tourism ties, as well as cultural cooperation. On the multilateral aspect, she stressed the need to increase cooperation with the OPCW as well as other international organisations in The Hague. 

Ambassador-designate Rekha Gunasekera, an officer of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service, has served in various portfolios during her career spanning 21 years. She most recently served as the Director General, United Nations and Human Rights of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Sri Lanka. She has experience in both bilateral and multilateral affairs having served at the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in New York, the Permanent Mission of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in Geneva, the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Beijing and the High Commission of Sri Lanka in London.

 Ambassador-designate Gunasekera has a Bachelor of Science (First Class, Honours) from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and a Master’s degree in International Relations (Peace and Conflict Studies) from the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan. She is the winner of the prestigious Professor Stanely Wijesundera Memorial Gold Medal for Bio- Chemistry & Molecular Biology in 1999.