Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Wednesday appointed 35 new state ministers and three new deputy ministers in the new interim government, which will function till the next parliamentary election is announced.
The new state and deputy ministers took oaths in front of the president at the Presidential Secretariat in capital Colombo.
Some of the new appointees include senior MP from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, SLPP, Chamal Rajapaksa as the new state minister for defence and John Seneviratne, state minister for economic and policy development.
Others are Susil Premajayantha as state minister for international relations, Keheliya Rambukwella as state minister for investment promotion and Arundika Fernando as state minister for tourism promotion.
The new appointments came days after the president appointed a 16-member cabinet after former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe stepped down from his post following the defeat of his presidential candidate Sajith Premadasa at the Nov. 16 presidential polls.
Xinhua/NAN
