H. E. Sumith Dassanayake

Ambassador / Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland

and Non-Resident Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Holy See

Ambassador Sumith Dassanayake is a career diplomat with nearly three decades of experience in the Sri Lanka Foreign Service. On 17 February 2026, he presented his credentials to Ms. Tatiana Valovaya, Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, as the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations Office at Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland. On 21 May 2026, he presented his credentials to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Sri Lanka to the Holy See, with residence in Geneva, at the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.

Prior to his appointment in Geneva, Ambassador Dassanayake served as Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Federative Republic of Brazil from September 2021 to December 2024, with concurrent accreditation to Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Peru, Paraguay, Uruguay, Suriname and Guyana. From October 2016 to November 2019, he served as Sri Lanka’s first Ambassador to Ethiopia and Permanent Representative to the African Union Commission, with concurrent accreditation to Djibouti, Somalia and South Sudan.

His other overseas assignments include serving as Deputy Chief of Mission and Minister at the Sri Lanka High Commission in Ottawa, Canada, from 2010 to 2014; Deputy Chief of Mission, Counsellor and First Secretary at the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Oslo, Norway, from 2005 to 2008; and Second Secretary at the Sri Lanka Deputy High Commission in Chennai, India, from 2000 to 2003.

At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Colombo, Ambassador Dassanayake has held several senior appointments, including Director General of the Human Resources and Mission Management Division; Director General of the Human Resources Development, Research and Training Division; Director General of the Middle East and Africa Division; Director of the South Asia and SAARC Division; and Deputy Chief of Protocol. He has also served as Assistant Director in the East Asia and Pacific Division, the Overseas Administrations Division and the Consular Affairs Division.

Ambassador Dassanayake has represented Sri Lanka at numerous bilateral, regional and multilateral engagements, including leading the first-ever Sri Lankan trade delegation to Chile in September 2023, comprising 14 Ceylon Tea-exporting companies;  representing Sri Lanka at the African Union Summits held in Addis Ababa in 2017, 2018 and 2019; representing Sri Lanka at the Asian-African Conference in Jakarta in April 2025;  and participating in the Fourth UAE Public-Private Counter-Piracy Conference in Dubai in 2014.

Before joining the Sri Lanka Foreign Service he was in the corporate sector and served as Senior Assistant Manager for Human Resources Development at United Motors Lanka PLC from January to July 1998 and an Executive at John Keells Holdings PLC from 1996 to 1997

Ambassador Dassanayake holds a Master’s degree in Conflict and Peace Studies from the University of Colombo and a Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Kelaniya. He also holds a Postgraduate Diploma in International Relations from the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies. His executive training includes the Advanced Security Cooperation Course at the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Hawaii, USA, and a course on disarmament conducted by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) and the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) in Geneva, Switzerland.