Sri Lanka–United Kingdom relations

Sri Lanka–United Kingdom relations, or British-Sri Lankan relations, are foreign relations between Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom.

British-Sri Lankan relations

Sri Lanka	United Kingdom
Diplomatic mission
High Commission of Sri Lanka, London	British High Commission, Colombo
Envoy
High Commissioner Amari Mandika Wijewardene	High Commissioner James Dauris

History

During the Napoleonic Wars Great Britain, fearing that French control of the Netherlands might deliver Sri Lanka to the French, occupied the coastal areas of the island (which they called Ceylon) with little difficulty in 1796, and ending Dutch Ceylon. In 1802 the Treaty of Amiens formally ceded the Dutch part of the island to Britain and it became a Crown Colony (see British Ceylon). In 1803 the British invaded the Kingdom of Kandy in the first Kandyan War, but were repulsed. In 1815 Kandy was occupied in the second Kandyan War, finally ending Sri Lankan independence.

Run as a colony affiliated to British India from 1817, major political reforms started with the Donoughmore Commission that proposed the constitution used from 1931 to 1947. The island became self-governing as the Dominion of Ceylon in 1948, and as the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka from 1972.

2015 onwards

President Maithripala Sirisena made an official visit to the United Kingdom in 2015 and met Prime Minister David Cameron and The queen,[1] while Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe made an official visit in 2018 to meet Prime Minister Theresa May.[2][3]

See also

• Foreign relations of Sri Lanka
• Foreign relations of the United Kingdom

References

1. https://www.newsfirst.lk/2015/03/11/president-sirisena-meets-queen-elizabeth-as-uk-vows-to-support-sri-lanka/
2. http://colombogazette.com/2018/10/02/ranil-to-head-to-london-after-norway-visit/
3. https://asianmirror.lk/news/item/28316-crisis-meets-crisis-ranil-to-meet-british-prime-minister-theresa-may-in-london

External links