OPR -  Thursday 19th June, 2008

PRESENTATION OF CREDENTIALS BY THE AMBASSADOR OF THAILAND AND

THE HIGH COMMISSIONER OF SRI LANKA

President Eddie Fenech Adami was presented with Letters of Credence by H.E. Mrs. Asha Dvitiyananda, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand and Letters of Commission by H.E. Mr Hemantha Warnakulasuriya, High Commissioner of the Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka.

Both ceremonies took place in the Ambassadors’ Room at The Palace, Valletta.

In the afternoon, the President of Malta and Mrs Fenech Adami hosted the newly accredited Ambassadors to an official luncheon at San Anton Palace.

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CV: Asha Dvitiyananda, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Thailand

Ambassador Asha Dvitiyananda was born in October 1949.

She received her education from a number of prestigious institutions and she holds a BA in Political Science from the Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand. She was also awarded a ‘Certificat de la Section Diplomatique’, which she received from the Institute International d’Administration Publique, France. In addition, she also attended the National Defence College of Thailand in 2002.

Ambassador Dvitiyananda has had a very wide ranging career in the Thai Diplomatic Service which she joined in 1971.  A year later she served as Attache, at the Americas Division, Department of Political Affairs. In 1977 he became Third Secretary, Division of International Economic Affairs at the Department of Economic Affairs. In 1979 she was posted to the Royal Thai Embassy, Colombo as Third Secretary and then as Second Secretary. She has served as First Secretary responsible for Public and Cultural Affairs Division at the Department of Information (1982), First Secretary, Permanent Mission of Thailand to the United Nations, New York (1986) and Counsellor, Division of Economic Information at the Department of Economic Affairs (1990).

Other high ranking positions followed when she was appointed Director, Division I at the Department of European Affairs in 1992 and Minister counsellor at the Royal Thai Embassy in Warsaw in 1994. She became Minister at the Permanent Mission of Thailand to the United Nations, Office and International Organisations in Geneva in 1998 and Director General at the Department of European Affairs in 2002.

Since 2004, Ambassador Dvitiyananda has been serving as Ambassador of Thailand to the Republic of the Philippines. The Ambassador is married to Apichai Dvitiyananda.

President Eddie Feench Adami with Ambassador Asha Dvitiyananda

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CV: High Commissioner Hemantha Warnakulasuriya

High Commissioner Warnakulasuriya was born in 1944, and was called to the Bar and admitted as an attorney at Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka in February 1972. He was very actively involved in human rights activities and took a very prominent role within the Sri Lankan Bar Association. In fact he became the Secretary of the Sri Lanka Bar Association in 1989. As a human rights activist he appeared pro bone for women and children where indigent women were involved. In 1994 he was elected Chairman of the Legal Aid Commission, and was also elected President of the Colombo Magistrate’s Court Lawyer Association in 2001 and 2002.

High Commissioner Warnakulasuriya was also deeply involved in Sri Lankan ‘legal and political’ affairs. He appeared for the respondents in the two Presidential Commission’s appointed to report on the Lalith Athulathmudali Assassination. High Commissioner Warnakulasuriya also had a stint as the Secretary of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka (April, 1989 to 31 March, 1991) as well as the Chairman of the Legal Aid Commission. In addition, he was elected President of the Colombo Magistrate’s Courts Lawyers Association in 2001.

The High Commissioner Warnakulasuriya is married and has two children. In his youth he was also a founding member of the ‘Ape Kattiya’ Drama Group, which produced theatre productions such as ‘Boarding Karayo’, ‘Thattu Geval’, as well a film entitled ‘Samanalayo’.  The High Commissioner is an author and also co-authored books on food production and population in Sri Lanka and the Romanisation of the Sinhala alphabet, as well as an academic work on Colloquial Sinhala and a book entitled ‘Twenty Five years after Maname’.

President Eddie Fenech Adami presented with Letters of Commission by the Hemantha Warnakulasuriya