Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF SRI LANKA PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Chithambaranathan Mahendran, the new Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations, today presented his credentials to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Prior to his current appointment, from 5 December 2001, Mr. Mahendran served as adviser to his country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Tyronne Fernando.  From December 1994 to 4 December 2001, he served as adviser to Ranil Wickremasinghe, the then leader of the opposition, who is now Prime Minister of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Mahendran entered his country’s foreign service in 1957 and subsequently served four years in Sri Lanka’s embassy in Washington, D.C.  Following that assignment, from 1961 to 1964, he was a member of his country’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations. 

From 1975 to 1978, Mr. Mahendran served as Minister at Sri Lanka’s embassy in Beijing.  From 1980 to 1983, he was his country’s Ambassador to China and, concurrently, to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Mongolia and Viet Nam.  Among his other diplomatic assignments was his posting, from 1989 to 1992, as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Japan.

In 1993, Mr. Mahendran was an adviser to Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Finance.  In 1994, he was managing director of Lanka Asia Management Systems Co (Pvt) Ltd.

Mr. Mahendran obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Western History from the University of Ceylon in 1955, and a Master of Arts degree from the John Hopkins University School of International Studies in Washington, D.C. in 1961.

Born in 1932, he is married with two children.

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