Today (July 25, 2022), Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Sabry assumed duties at the Ministry in a simple ceremony. Then came Foreign Secretary Aruni Wijewardane and other senior officials.
Addressing the officials, Minister Ali Sabry stated that he was looking forward to carrying out the Ministry’s mandate to steer Sri Lanka’s foreign relations while keeping domestic pressures in mind. He praised the outgoing Foreign Minister, Prof. G. L. Peiris, for his leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In 2020, Minister Sabry was elected to the Parliament.
Minister Ali Sabry served as Minister of Justice from August 12, 2020, until April 4, 2022, when he was appointed Finance Minister.
As Minister of Justice, he initiated numerous new initiatives, including the Justice Sector Reform Programme, which aimed to amend over a hundred laws, some of which had not been changed in over a century. Minister Ali Sabry also launched a drive to digitize the justice sector, expand courthouses across the country, and introduce specialized courthouses to address the issue of delays.
As Finance Minister, he led the Sri Lankan delegation to recent negotiations in Washington, D.C. with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
Minister Ali Sabry was a practicing lawyer prior to entering politics, with many of the cases he handled appearing in legal reports and publications. He was named Special Counsel in 2012 and was named Outstanding Young Person of the Year for Legal Achievement in 2009. In 1997, he served as Sri Lanka’s Consul General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Foreign Affairs Ministry
