On 16 October 2019, Ambassador Sampath Prasanna Walpita Gamage presented his Letter of Credence to the President and General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam Nguyen Phu Trong at the Presidential Palace in Ha Noi, accrediting him as the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sri Lanka to Viet Nam. The Ambassador was accompanied by Third Secretary (Commercial) Prasadi Boomawalage and Attaché Anjana Illeperuma of the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Viet Nam.
At the Presidential Palace, Ambassador Prasanna Gamage was received by a Ceremonial Guard. The Ambassador conveyed greetings of President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena to President of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam Nguyen Phu Trong. The President of Viet Nam reciprocated his greetings to the President of Sri Lanka and conveyed his warm congratulations to the new Ambassador while promising to extend his fullest cooperation to enhance the bilateral relationship between the two countries.
The President further elaborated that, Viet Nam as the Chair of ASEAN in 2020 and as a non-permanent member of UN Security Council for the period of 2020 – 2021, will be able to enhance its international cooperation in a broader context.
Prasanna Gamage joined Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1998 and served in the capacities of Assistant Chief of Protocol, Personal Assistant to the Foreign Secretary cum Deputy Director of Economic Affairs, Actg. Director-General of Overseas Administration, Director/ South Asia & SAARC, and Deputy Chief of Protocol. He was the Director-General of Policy Planning, Research and Human Resources Development of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs immediately prior to his appointment as the Ambassador to Viet Nam.
In his diplomatic career, he served as the Consul General of Sri Lanka in Melbourne, Australia from 2015 to 2019 and held positions at Sri Lanka High Commissions in Singapore and the United Kingdom. He was also Sri Lanka’s Country Director at the SAARC Secretariat in Kathmandu, Nepal from 2012 to 2014.
Ambassador Prasanna Gamage is a graduate of the Faculty of Agriculture of the University of Peradeniya. He received his primary education at Pilana Maha Vidyalaya, Galle and secondary education at Richmond College, Galle.
Embassy of Sri Lanka
Ha Noi
16 October 2019
