Sri Lanka High Commissioner and Commons Speaker urge closer links
26 May 2021
The High Commissioner of Sri Lanka met the Speaker of the House of Commons for the first time – and bonded over a shared love of cricket.
Sir Lindsay Hoyle was very proud to inform Her Excellency Saroja Sirisena that Chorley Cricket Club’s top signing in 2020 was none other than Sri Lankan Test ace Roshen Silva - and the pair agreed that cricket could help bring their two Parliaments together.
Closer links between the UK and Sri Lankan parliaments are already thriving through the establishment of an All Party Parliamentary Group on Sri Lanka.
But Ms Sirisena suggested these could be deepened further with a friendly cricket match between the two parliaments - an idea welcomed by the Speaker.
Sir Lindsay arranged the introductory meeting as part of his Speaker-led UK parliamentary diplomacy to establish enduring ties between countries and parliamentarians.
The pair discussed how Covid had impacted both nations; opportunities for students, and about their ambitions to expand trade links, as the UK is Sri Lanka’s second biggest trading partner.
Sri Lanka, which has a population of 22 million, is located in the Indian Ocean and was formerly known as Ceylon. It is also a founding member of the Commonwealth.
Ms Sirisena was appointed Sri Lanka’s High Commissioner to the UK in March 2020. She was previously Ambassador to Austria and is a graduate of the University of Melbourne, Australia, and the Ecole National d’Administration, France.
Image credit: UK Parliament/Jessica Taylor