Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata

On Nov. 17, 2011 Ambassador Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata was sworn in by the President of the Republic as Minister for Foreign Affairs.

This appointment by President of the Council of Ministers, Professor Mario Monti, is the latest in a long diplomatic career that has seen him directly engaged, both in Italy and abroad, in Italian foreign policy decisions concerning international security and the defense and promotion of national interests in the spheres of business, culture and research.

All the various aspects of diplomacy, understood in its broadest application as the enhancement of a nation’s role, image and interests, in bilateral and multilateral relations alike, can clearly be identified in Giulio Terzi’s most recent undertakings.

In the role he held until 16 November 2011 as Ambassador of Italy to the United States, while engaged in the development of bilateral cooperation in the world’s main crisis theaters, Giulio Terzi applied a strategy founded on the common cultural, human and economic values that constitute what Italy and the United States consider their “shared identity”. The calendar of U.S. events celebrating the 150th anniversary of the unification of Italy provided an ideal framework for efforts whose most visible results include the introduction of the Italian language to American school curricula through the Advanced Placement program -– thanks also, and not least, to the efforts of the Italo-American community. The meeting at the White House in May 2010 between President Obama and President Napolitano, and U.S. Vice President Biden’s visit to Italy this year for the 150th celebrations, provide a clear picture of the extraordinary friendship and solid alliance that Rome and Washington currently enjoy.

Transatlantic relations, international security, development and human rights concerns were the priority items on Giulio Terzi’s agenda as Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations in New York from 2008 to 2009, where he led the Italian delegation to the Security Council in the final phase of Italy’s 2007-2008 non-permanent membership – a period that placed Italy once again in the forefront in the campaign for Security Council reforms founded on the principles of efficiency, transparency and representation.

Other previous posts include that of Ambassador of Italy to Israel from 2002 to 2004, during which time, acting also as Italian EU Presidency representative, his focus was on strengthening the ties between Israel and Europe in an especially demanding context marked by the outbreak of the Second Intifada, a highly significant experience in which Giulio Terzi was able to gain a direct and even deeper understanding of Middle East issues.

In the most recent phase of his tenure at the Foreign Ministry in Rome, Giulio Terzi fulfilled the functions of Deputy Secretary General, Director General for Multilateral Political Cooperation and Human Rights, and Political Director.

Born in Bergamo in 1946, Giulio Terzi completed a degree in Law, specialising in International Law, at the University of Milan.