On January 30, 2019 Ambassador of Sri Lanka to the Russian Federation Dr. Dayan Jayatilleka and Madame Sanja Jayatilleka paid a visit to the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the largest and the oldest higher education establishment in Russia in the area of the Humanities with 500 researchers working on the Asian and North African history and culture, economics and politics, and languages.
Ambassador Jayatilleka and Madame Jayatilleka were received by the President of the Institute, Professor Vitaly Naumkin, and the Head of Indian Studies Dr. Tatiana Shaumyan.

Moscow State Institute of International Relations abbreviated as MGIMO University, is an academic institution run by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, which is widely considered the most prestigious university in Russia. Henry Kissinger called it the "Harvard of Russia" because it educates a constellation of the political, economic, and intellectual elite.
It was founded by Stalin in 1944 for the purpose of enhancing the education and training of the Soviet diplomatic corps for the new, post-War II global environment.
Since 1992 the University is led by Professor Anatoly Torkunov, who is also a MGIMO graduate, holds two doctoral degrees in History and Political Science and has the rank of Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.

On January 28, 2019 Ambassador Jayatilleka paid a courtesy call on his Pakistani counterpart, a veteran diplomat Ambassador Qazi M. Khalilullah. Ambassador Qazi M. Khalilullah served as spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs before he assumed his duty as Head of Mission in Moscow.
Ambassador Jayatilleka was warmly welcomed in the premises with more than 100 years of history.