President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will not attend this year’s United Nations General Assembly, with Sri Lanka to be represented at ministerial level, Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath said on Tuesday.
Herath said he will represent Sri Lanka and deliver the country’s address on September 28, the Daily Mirror reported. He is scheduled to leave for New York on September 26.
He made the announcement at the same Cabinet decisions media briefing at which he disclosed a US Embassy approach over Iranian vessels off Sri Lanka.
This answers a question left open yesterday
Herath met UN Resident Coordinator Marc-André Franche at the Foreign Ministry on Monday to discuss Sri Lanka’s priorities for the 81st session. LankaNewz noted at the time that the reporting did not say who would lead the delegation or when Sri Lanka would address the session. Tuesday’s briefing supplies both: ministerial level, and September 28.
Representation at ministerial level
Herath gave no reason for the President’s absence, and the Daily Mirror reports none. Ministerial representation is unremarkable at the General Assembly — most member states are represented below head-of-state level in any given year — but the announcement settles a question that had been open since Monday’s meeting on the session’s priorities.
The decision lands in a crowded diplomatic month. The Human Rights Council’s 63rd session is running in Geneva, where the High Commissioner’s latest report on Sri Lanka is before the Council, and Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Colombo on Tuesday on the first visit by an Indian defence minister in 38 years.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror does not say why the President is not attending, whether he had been expected to, or who else will travel with the minister. It does not identify a single Sri Lankan priority for the session — the same gap left by Monday’s meeting with the Resident Coordinator — and gives no detail on bilateral meetings planned around the address or on the date of Sri Lanka’s third Voluntary National Review on the Sustainable Development Goals.
Update, September 9
NewsFirst has now carried the announcement, confirming both dates — the September 28 address and the September 26 departure for New York.
Its account adds the contrast the minister drew rather than a reason for it: Herath noted that President Dissanayake attended the previous session as head of state, while he will represent Sri Lanka this year in his capacity as Foreign Minister. That confirms the drop in level is deliberate and acknowledged, but neither outlet reports why. Sri Lanka’s priorities for the 81st session remain unnamed across four reports now.
