The newly appointed High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to the Republic of Singapore, Mr. Nimal Weeraratne presented his credentials to His Excellency Tony Tan Keng Yam, President of the Republic of Singapore on Thursday, 26th November 2015. The ceremony was held at the Istana, the office and the official residence of the President of Singapore where the High Commissioner was welcomed with a Guard of Honour upon his arrival.
After the welcome ceremony, High Commissioner Weeraratne presented credentials to President Tony Tan, and held a brief discussion. The First Lady of Singapore, Mrs. Weeraratne and senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore were present at the meeting. In his remarks, the High Commissioner conveyed warm greetings and best wishes of President Maithripala Sirisena and those of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to the Singaporean President which was warmly reciprocated.
Referring to the bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and Singapore, the High Commissioner Weeraratne stated that the two countries enjoy excellent relations, and Sri Lanka would like to enhance the existing cooperation with Singapore, especially in the fields of trade, investment and economic cooperation, capacity building and training, infrastructure and urban development. The High Commissioner also conveyed Sri Lanka’s appreciation to Singapore of its assistance on national reconciliation efforts, and expressed hope that Sri Lanka could learn a lot from Singapore in this respect.
President Tony Tan warmly welcomed the High Commissioner and wished him every success in his new assignment as Sri Lanka’s envoy to Singapore. The Singaporean President also expressed confidence that the relations between the two countries would be further deepened and strengthened during the tenure of the new High Commissioner.
High Commissioner Weeraratne was a legal practitioner, held several senior executive positions in the private sector and a senior partner at “Varners”, a firm of lawyers in Sri Lanka, prior to this assignment.
