Profile of Ambassador Aruni Ranaraja

Aruni Ranaraja, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to The Philippines joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service in 1996. During her diplomatic career spanning twenty years, she has served in several capacities both at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and several Sri Lankan Embassies.

Her appointment as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sri Lanka to The Philippines is her first appointment at Ambassadorial level.

Her other overseas assignments  include: Minister, Sri Lanka Embassy in Rome, Italy; Minister Counsellor, Embassy of Sri Lanka in Moscow , Russian  Federation,  Counsellor, Sri Lanka Embassy Bangkok, Royal  Kingdom of Thailand and Second Secretary, Embassy of Sri Lanka to Belgium and the European Union.

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo, she served as: Director General -Africa; Actg. Director General – United Nations, Multilateral Affairs, Human Rights and Conferences; Director -Consular Affairs, Director – Political Affairs East Asia and the Pacific; Director, Political Affairs Europe, CIS, Director – Political Affairs, South Asia and SAARC; Deputy Director, Economic Affairs; and Assistant Director at Political Affairs East Asia and the Pacific and  Political Affairs Europe, CIS, and Americas.

She served on secondment at Office of the Prime Minister in 2002.

Through a career spanning 20 years in the Foreign Service of Sri Lanka, she gathered extensive experience multilateral and bilateral negotiations / diplomacy on a wide range of areas from Political to Social and Economic spheres. She has functioned as the Desk Officer for Bay Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC), Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), Group of 15. The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA), South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC). She was a member of the Core Team for the hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in 2013, Sri Lanka.

Ambassador Aruni Ranaraja holds a Masters Degree in International Relations from the State University of Ukraine and Bachelors Degree in International Relations  from the  same University.  Also  she holds a Postgraduate Diploma in International Affairs from the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS), Colombo.

She has wide personal interests in heritage, culture and the arts, sports, humanities and is an avid reader.

In addition to her native languages, she is fluent in English and Russian and understands French, Japanese and Thai.

Born in December 1967 in the hill capital of Kandy, Sri Lanka, Ambassador Ranaraja is the daughter of late Mr. Shelton Ranaraja and late Mrs. Chandra Ranaraja . She is married to  Dharshana Perera, Sri Lankan Ambassador to the Republic of Indonesia and  have one son.