New US Ambassador presents credentials

US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives Atul Keshap presents his credentials to President Maithripala Sirisena, while Secretary to the Ministry of External Affairs, Chitranganee Wagiswara, and Secretary to the President, P. B. Abeykoon, look on.

Atul Keshap, the new US Ambassador to Sri Lanka and Maldives, presented his credentials on Friday (21) to President Maithripala Sirisena in Colombo.

Ambassador Keshap is a career diplomat with the US Department of State, and has spent much of his career focusing on South Asia, including Sri Lanka. Most recently, he was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs in Washington DC, working closely with a strategic region of almost 1.7 billion people and over US$2 trillion in economic output. His other overseas postings have included work at the US Embassies in New Delhi, India; Rabat, Morocco; and Conakry, Guinea.

Ambassador Keshap has expressed great enthusiasm for his new posting in Sri Lanka. "I have travelled to Sri Lanka many times in my career, and every time I have been struck by the incredible natural beauty of these islands, and tremendous hospitality and warmth of the people who live there," he said during his official swearing in ceremony in Washington DC on August 9.