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Currently state secretary of the Sri Lanka ministry of foreign affairs, Grace Asirwatham will soon take up her post as ambassador to Luxembourg, Belgium and the European Union.Photo credit: Sri Lanka ministry of foreign affairs 

The announcement of the nominations was initially made last September, but the appointments were delayed. Delano's sources say ambassador Perera has been in Washington and Sri Lanka over the last few weeks to prepare for his move.

At the beginning of June Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena met with 17 newly appointed Sri Lankan ambassadors and High Commissioners, including Asirwatham and Perera, and asked them to urge the countries to which they were being posted to lift negative travel advice that had been issued following the terrorits attacks in April.

Rodney Perera served as the Sri Lankan ambassador to Luxembourg, Belgium and the European Union since August 2014. He had previously served as ambassador to Italy and Norway. He is very familiar with the United States, having obtained a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Toledo, Ohio, and a master’s in international relations from the Columbia University, New York.

Grace Asirwatham has served as Sri Lanka’s ambassador to Nepal and The Netherlands and in other positions in Sri Lanka missions in Germany and Pakistan. Since October 2017 she has held the post of state secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs.