Ambassador Dr. Saman Weerasinghe called on Valentina Tereshkova, a Russian former cosmonaut and she is the first woman to have flown in space, having been selected from more than four hundred applicants and five finalists to pilot Vostok 6 on 16 June 1963.

To this day, she is revered as a hero, and to some her importance in Russian space history is only surpassed by Yuri Gagarin and Alexey Leonov. In 2011, she was elected to the State Duma, the lower house of the Russian legislature, where she continues to serve as a Deputy Chairman of the Committee of the International Relations. She was decorated with the Hero of the Soviet Union medal, the USSR's highest award. She was also awarded the Order of Lenin, Order of the October Revolution, numerous other medals, and foreign orders including the Karl Marx Order, United Nations Gold Medal of Peace and the Simba International Women’s Movement Award. She was also bestowed a title of the Hero of Socialist Labor of Czechoslovakia, Hero of Labor of Vietnam, and Hero of Mongolia.

She visited Sri Lanka, as a guest of Prime Minister Sirimavo Bandaranayake and she is an active member of the Russia-Sri Lanka Friendship Association. 
Cosmonaut and Soviet Union Hero Vladimir Lyahov also participated this meeting together with Ambassador Weerasinghe.