Arthur Basnayake (1 October 1925 – October 2015) was a Sri Lankan diplomat. He was the Ceylon's High Commissioner to India,

Sri Lankan Ambassador to Myanmar The Sri Lankan Ambassador to Myanmar is the Sri Lankan envoy to Myanmar. List of Minister and Envoy Extraordinary * Sir Susantha de Fonseka (1949-1952) * Sir Velupillai Coomaraswamy (1952-1954) * A. E. Gunasinha (1954-1956) * Raja Hewavitarne ...

and Japan. Educated at Saint Joseph's College, Colombo and at the University of Ceylon where he read Geography. He joined the Ceylon Overseas Service in October 1949 as one of the first five to be recruited to the service and was posted to the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence. He was thereafter posted to Rangoon and then to Rome as official secretary. He was then posted as

first secretary First Secretary may refer to: * First minister, a leader of a government * Secretary (title), a leader of a political party (especially Communist parties), trade union, or other organization * First Secretary (diplomatic rank), a role within an emba ...

of the Ceylonese mission to the United Nations in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

. He thereafter served in the Ceylonese embassy in Washington, New Delhi and London having served as the deputy high commissioner to the United Kingdom. From 1974 to 1977, Basnayake was the Director General of foreign affairs at the Ministry of External Affairs and Defence in Colombo. In this capacity he played a major role in organizing the 5th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Colombo in August 1976. He was appointed Ceylon's High Commissioner to India in 1977 and served till 1978. He thereafter served as Sri Lankan Ambassador to Myanmar and Japan. After his retirement from the Overseas Service, he worked as a professor of international relations at the

Nagoya University , abbreviated to or NU, is a Japanese national research university located in Chikusa-ku, Nagoya. It was the seventh Imperial University in Japan, one of the first five Designated National University and selected as a Top Type university of T ...

. He was married to Damini Wickramasinghe.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Basnayake, Arthur 1925 births 2015 deaths Ambassadors of Sri Lanka to Japan Ambassadors of Sri Lanka to Myanmar High Commissioners of Sri Lanka to India Ambassadors of Sri Lanka to Nepal Sri Lankan diplomats Alumni of Saint Joseph's College, Colombo Alumni of the University of Ceylon Nagoya University faculty