The Foreign Ministry has rejected a United National Party claim that Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister was denied a proper diplomatic reception in Sri Lanka, saying she travelled in a private capacity and received every courtesy her embassy asked for.
The exchange ran over about three hours on Monday evening.
The UNP’s charge
The UNP said the government had failed to accord an official diplomatic welcome to Thai Deputy Prime Minister Suphajee Suthumpun, and had not provided her with adequate security during her visit, the Daily Mirror reported at 6.33 p.m.
In a special statement, the party said she had come “to participate in the unveiling of the pinnacle at the historic Mihindu Maha Seya in Mihintale, an important event for Buddhists.”
“However, she was not accorded an official welcome. This demonstrates the immaturity of the government,” the statement said.
The party drew a comparison with former British Prime Minister David Cameron, who it said was given an official welcome when he visited Sri Lanka on a personal trip several years ago.
The Ministry’s answer
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Suthumpun had visited in her private capacity, to join Buddhist devotees at the enshrinement ceremony at the Mihintale temple, the Daily Mirror reported at 9.16 p.m.
The Thai Embassy had requested access to the VIP lounge and other courtesies, the Ministry said, and Sri Lankan authorities provided those facilities as requested. No other officials accompanied her, because the trip was solely to attend the religious ceremony. The Ministry added that she had made similar private visits to Sri Lanka before for religious activities.
The two statements do not meet head-on
The Ministry’s reply answers a narrower question than the one the UNP asked.
The UNP’s complaint is that no official welcome was extended. The Ministry does not say one was. It says the courtesies the Thai Embassy requested were granted — which leaves open whether an official welcome was requested at all, and the Ministry’s framing implies it was not, since the visit is described as private throughout.
The same gap applies to security. The UNP says the protection provided was inadequate; the Ministry’s statement addresses VIP lounge access and “other courtesies” without separately addressing security arrangements.
The two sides also describe the Mihintale event differently — the UNP as the unveiling of the pinnacle at the Mihindu Maha Seya, the Ministry as an enshrinement ceremony at the temple. Both are accounts of the same occasion.
Neither filing gives the date of the visit, and neither reports a Thai government comment.
A separate Thailand story is running in the same week
Sri Lanka and Thailand are simultaneously in the news over an unrelated matter: the Environment Ministry has been dealing with activist pressure in Thailand to repatriate two elephants gifted to Sri Lanka, with the Deputy Environment Minister saying the animals have been certified healthy and that Thailand and its embassies have been informed.
No filing connects the two matters, and none is asserted here. They are recorded together only because both concern Thailand and Sri Lanka in the same week, and a future search on either will return the other.
Not reported
Ada Derana filed on both halves of this exchange (adaderana.lk/news/250200 on the UNP statement and adaderana.lk/news/250208 on the Ministry’s reply). Neither is cited: the site has returned an HTTP 403 to this desk for 32 consecutive days, so no publication date can be verified for either. The aggregator Newswire also carried the Ministry’s response; aggregators earn no credibility weighting here.
Hiru News had not filed on the visit at the time of writing, and no Sinhala-language account was available. Both reachable reports on this story are Daily Mirror filings, so it carries no multi-newsroom credibility badge.
Sources: Daily Mirror — UNP statement, Daily Mirror — Foreign Ministry clarification.
