Saroja Sirisena

Saroja Sirisena is a Sri Lankan diplomat. She served as the Sri Lankan High Commissioner to the United Kingdom between 2020 and 2023. She has previously held diplomatic positions at the United Nations, as well as in Austria and India.

Early life and education Sirisena was born in Colombo, Sri Lanka. An only child, she was daughter to a family of doctors and grew up in both England and Colombo. She graduated from the university with a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science, and later attended Ecole nationale d'Administration in France for her post-graduate studies.

Career Between 1997 and 1998, Sirisena was the executive assistant to the Minister of Commerce. In 1998, she joined the Sri Lanka Foreign Service, where she served as the Assistant Director of Economic Affairs for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 2001. As Consul General, she oversaw diplomatic relations with Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa in India. She has additionally held positions in Sri Lanka as part of diplomatic missions in Geneva, Brussels and Paris.

In 2023, she was awarded the Diplomat of the Year from Asia and Oceania at The Diplomat magazine's annual Awards Ceremony.