After Geetha's case, Foreign Ministry checks whether any diplomats are dual citizens

The Foreign Affairs Ministry has asked Sri Lankan diplomats here and abroad to notify it if any of them is a dual citizen.

A circular was sent out this week pursuant to an inquiry by the Sunday Times whether any diplomats at the Foreign Ministry or in Sri Lanka’s missions overseas held dual citizenship. It was found that the Overseas Administration Division ( OAD) of the ministry did not have the required information.

Therefore, on Wednesday it sent a circular to Heads of Mission and Post stating that the ministry “wishes to gather information from Missions/ Posts abroad regarding Diplomatic Officers including Heads of Mission/ Post who hold Dual Citizenship”.

The question arose after the Court of Appeal recently held that Galle District Pa rl i a m e n t a r i a n G e e t h a Kumarasinghe cannot hold a post in Parliament as she was a dual citizen of Sri Lanka and Switzerland. Her appeal against this is now before the Supreme Court.

Where diplomatic posts are concerned, the issue with dual citizenship is that some coun- tries would not want one of their nationals to serve as ambassador or diplomat of another country. The US, for example, would have legal issues in granting immunity to one of its nationals serving as an ambassador of a foreign country. There are also concerns over conflicts of interest.

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and Optional Protocols states that: “Members of the diplomatic staff of the mission should in principle be of the nationality of the sending State.”

It also says: “Members of the diplomatic staff of the mission may not be appointed from among persons having the nationality of the receiving State, except with the consent of that State which may be withdrawn at any time.”