Ambassador (Retd.) Ravinatha Aryasinha was the Foreign Secretary of Sri Lanka 2018-2020. As a career member of the Sri Lanka Foreign Service (SLFS) since 1988, Ambassador Aryasinha also served as Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to the United States; Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva; and Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg and the European Union. His early postings included India and the US, and in the Foreign Ministry, as Additional Secretary/Economic Affairs he headed the Economic Diplomacy programme, and as Director General/Public Diplomacy served as the Foreign Ministry Spokesman.

Prior to joining the SLFS, he began his career in 1982 as a pioneer TV Correspondent at the Sri Lanka Rupavahini (TV) Corporation, and on leave from the SLFS also served as National Information Officer at the UN Office in Sri Lanka from 1993-1995. Following retirement, from 2023-2025 he was the Executive Director of the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute of International Relations and Strategic Studies (LKI). He presently serves as the Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS). In addition to serving on the Council of Management of the BCIS, he is a member of the Board of Management of the Gamani Corea Foundation and the Governing Council of the MARGA Institute.

He holds a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Peradeniya; an MA in International Relations from the University of Colombo; was a Hurst Fellow in International Relations at the School of International Service (SIS), American University, Washington DC; and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in International Relations at the University of Colombo. He serves on the visiting faculty of the Sir John Kotelawala Defence University (KDU), the Bandaranaike Centre for International Studies (BCIS), the National Defence College (NDC), and is a Distinguished Mentor at the Sri Lanka Institute of Development Administration (SLIDA).