His Excellency Professor Meegahalande .D. Lamawansa was appointed Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of his country to the Russian Federation in January this year. Due to the situation with the spread of the coronavirus, all activities related to the appointment had to be postponed. Only now, His Excellency Professor M.D. Lamawansa was able to come to St. Petersburg on the official visit. This was his first visit to the Northern capital of Russia. The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Sri Lanka met with representatives of the city administration, inagurated a branch of the Russian Friendship Society with Sri Lanka in St. Petersburg, and participated in other diplomatic events.

It is especially pleasant that a visit to Kunstkamer has become an important part of this eventful program. A tour of the museum was conducted for H.E. the Ambassador. As a transplant surgeon in his background, Professor Meegalahande D. Lamawansa was impressed by the hall of the First Natural Science Collections, where the medical instruments of Peter the Great and preparations of Federic Ruysch are exhibited. The Ambassador also admired the hall of India, in which many items on display prove the long-term and sustainable scientific interest of the staff of the Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of the Russian Academy of Science to the culture and traditions of the people of Sri Lanka.
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka to the Russian Federation had a meeting with Andrey Vladimirovich Golovnyov, Director of the Museum, Igor Yuryevich Kotin, Head of South and South-West Asian Studies and with Elena Stanislavovna Soboleva, Senior Researcher of the Department of Ethnography of South and Southwest Asia.
The parties agreed to develop bilateral cultural and scientific cooperation. Specific proposals and projects will need to be prepared for the start of the official visit to Russia by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, which is scheduled for this fall.