President Anura Kumara Dissanayake will not attend this year’s United Nations General Assembly, with Sri Lanka to be represented at ministerial level, Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath said on Tuesday.

Herath said he will represent Sri Lanka and deliver the country’s address on September 28, the Daily Mirror reported. He is scheduled to leave for New York on September 26.

He made the announcement at the same Cabinet decisions media briefing at which he disclosed a US Embassy approach over Iranian vessels off Sri Lanka.

This answers a question left open yesterday

Herath met UN Resident Coordinator Marc-André Franche at the Foreign Ministry on Monday to discuss Sri Lanka’s priorities for the 81st session. LankaNewz noted at the time that the reporting did not say who would lead the delegation or when Sri Lanka would address the session. Tuesday’s briefing supplies both: ministerial level, and September 28.

Representation at ministerial level

Herath gave no reason for the President’s absence, and the Daily Mirror reports none. Ministerial representation is unremarkable at the General Assembly — most member states are represented below head-of-state level in any given year — but the announcement settles a question that had been open since Monday’s meeting on the session’s priorities.

The decision lands in a crowded diplomatic month. The Human Rights Council’s 63rd session is running in Geneva, where the High Commissioner’s latest report on Sri Lanka is before the Council, and Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh arrived in Colombo on Tuesday on the first visit by an Indian defence minister in 38 years.

Not reported

The Daily Mirror does not say why the President is not attending, whether he had been expected to, or who else will travel with the minister. It does not identify a single Sri Lankan priority for the session — the same gap left by Monday’s meeting with the Resident Coordinator — and gives no detail on bilateral meetings planned around the address or on the date of Sri Lanka’s third Voluntary National Review on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Update, September 9

NewsFirst has now carried the announcement, confirming both dates — the September 28 address and the September 26 departure for New York.

Its account adds the contrast the minister drew rather than a reason for it: Herath noted that President Dissanayake attended the previous session as head of state, while he will represent Sri Lanka this year in his capacity as Foreign Minister. That confirms the drop in level is deliberate and acknowledged, but neither outlet reports why. Sri Lanka’s priorities for the 81st session remain unnamed across four reports now.

Update, September 24: the session Herath is flying into

With the address four days away, the Daily Mirror has published fuller detail on the session itself. Both dates hold: departure on September 26, Sri Lanka’s national statement on September 28.

The 81st session opened on September 8 — the same day Herath announced he would lead the delegation — and its High-Level Week and General Debate run from September 22 to 28, placing Sri Lanka’s statement on the closing day. The session’s theme is “Restoring Trust, Managing Transformation: A United Nations That Delivers for All.”

The UN has set six broad priorities for the session: peace and security, sustainable development, climate resilience, human rights and humanitarian action, digital governance and artificial intelligence, and reforms to strengthen multilateral cooperation. The wider programme also covers sea-level rise, pandemic preparedness and nuclear disarmament.

The Daily Mirror gives Herath’s portfolio in full — Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism — and confirms the contrast NewsFirst drew: President Dissanayake attended and addressed the 80th General Assembly in 2025, while Herath represents Sri Lanka this year as Foreign Minister.

It also reports what the September 7 meeting with UN Resident Coordinator Marc-André Franche actually covered: Sri Lanka’s partnership with the UN of more than 70 years, the UN80 process, the UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework, and the country’s Third Voluntary National Review on the Sustainable Development Goals.

Still not reported, four reports on. The six priorities listed are the United Nations’, not Sri Lanka’s — no outlet has yet named a single Sri Lankan priority for the session. The visit is said to offer opportunities for bilateral and multilateral meetings with foreign ministers and senior UN officials, but no such meeting is identified. No date is given for the Third Voluntary National Review, and no reason is given for the drop from head-of-state to ministerial representation.

Update, September 26: the delegation’s programme, and a meeting finally named

On the morning Herath is due to leave for New York, NewsFirst has published the delegation’s programme. He will lead the Sri Lanka delegation, which attends the session from 27 to 30 September. The national statement holds on 28 September, delivered at the General Debate during High-Level Week.

The bilateral gap is partly closed. After three reports saying only that the visit offered “opportunities” for meetings, NewsFirst names one: on the margins of the Assembly, Herath will meet UN Secretary-General António Guterres, along with senior UN officials and the foreign ministers of several countries. Guterres is the first counterpart identified by name in any account of this trip. The other foreign ministers are still not named.

One point to read carefully: the 27–30 September window is the delegation’s, not the General Debate’s. The Daily Mirror put High-Level Week and the General Debate at 22 to 28 September, which would place Sri Lanka’s statement on the debate’s closing day and leave the delegation in New York for roughly two days of margins afterwards. The two accounts are compatible, but no outlet sets out what the delegation is doing on 29 and 30 September.

Still not reported, five reports on. No outlet has yet named a single Sri Lankan priority for the 81st session — the six priorities previously listed are the United Nations’ own. No date has been given for Sri Lanka’s Third Voluntary National Review, no reason has been given for the drop from head-of-state to ministerial representation, and the composition of the delegation beyond the minister is unreported.

Update, September 27: Herath has left, and the statement is set for Monday

Sri Lanka’s national statement will be delivered on Monday, 28 September, NewsFirst reported on Sunday evening. Herath departed for New York on Saturday, confirming that the 26 September departure announced three weeks ago went ahead as planned.

The report says the debate will present “the government’s stance on Sri Lanka’s current foreign policy priorities and global issues” to the international community — wording that once again stops short of naming any of those priorities.

One date to read carefully. NewsFirst describes the 81st session as having “began on the 22nd” and running “until the 28th.” That is the General Debate and High-Level Week, not the session: the Daily Mirror reported that the 81st session itself opened on 8 September and runs far beyond this week. The 22–28 September window matches the Daily Mirror’s General Debate dates exactly, so the two accounts agree on the substance and differ only in what they call it.

Update, September 28: the day of the address

Herath is in New York and is due to address the Assembly today, Hiru News and NewsFirst both reported on Monday morning. Hiru is the first outlet other than the Daily Mirror to give his portfolio in full — Foreign Affairs, Foreign Employment and Tourism — and both confirm he left the island on Saturday, 26 September, the date announced three weeks ago.

Beyond that, the day-of reports add nothing. NewsFirst attributes the trip’s purpose to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the same formula used all month: the minister will present “Sri Lanka’s current foreign policy priorities and the Government’s position on global issues”. Hiru’s wording is a near-identical paraphrase. Both again describe the 81st session as having “began on the 22nd of September” — the General Debate’s start, not the session’s, a distinction set out above. NewsFirst repeats the session theme and the plan to meet foreign ministers and senior UN officials, without naming any of them; only António Guterres has ever been named, and that was on 26 September.

Seven reports in, not one Sri Lankan priority has been named. Every account since 8 September has promised that Herath will set out Sri Lanka’s foreign policy priorities, and none has said what any of them is. The address itself is the first occasion on which that gap can close. No outlet gives the scheduled time of the statement, and at the time of writing it had not yet been delivered.

Update, September 28 (evening): delivered — and the priorities are named at last

The address has been delivered, and the gap closed. Sri Lanka’s national statement to the 81st session set out climate justice, debt and international financial-system reform, Gaza, transitional justice and equitable technology access as the country’s priorities — the first time in eight reports that any Sri Lankan priority has been named.

The Daily Mirror’s account of the statement leads on its humanitarian framing: “We need a world where our capacity to uphold humanity grows faster than our capacity to destroy it.” It cites the March rescue of sailors from the IRIS Dena as precedent — “While safeguarding our neutrality, we placed humanity above all else” — and reaffirms support for an independent Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders. Notably, the Daily Mirror attributes the statement throughout to “Sri Lanka” and never names Herath as the speaker; Newswire’s account does.

On climate, Herath cited Cyclone Ditwah — hundreds killed, more than two million affected — and restated targets of 70% renewable energy by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050. On the economy he said macroeconomic stability had been restored since 2022 but vulnerability to debt and external shocks persisted.

LankaNewz has published a full account: Sri Lanka urges world to put humanity before weapons in UN General Assembly statement.

Still not reported. No outlet has given the delivery time, named any foreign minister Herath met on the margins beyond Guterres, set a date for the Third Voluntary National Review, or explained the drop from head-of-state to ministerial representation. Ada Derana carried two filings on the statement; both were unreachable from our fetch path.

Sources