Giulio Terzi di Sant'Agata

Whole name

Count Giulio Maria Terzi of Sant'Agata, The Lord of Sant'Agata, Baron, Knight of the Holy Roman Empire, Noble of Bergamo (in Italian Conte Giulio Maria Terzi di Sant'Agata, Signore di Sant'Agata, Barone, Cavaliere del Sacro Romano Impero, Nobile di Bergamo).

Education

Terzi earned a degree in Law at the University of Milan, specializing in International Law.

Early career

Born in Bergamo, Terzi is a career diplomat. He joined Italy's foreign service in 1973. During his first two years at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, he served as a Protocol Officer assigned to visits abroad by Italian Government Officials. In 1975 he was posted as First Secretary for political affairs at the Italian Embassy in Paris. After returning to Rome in 1978, as Special Assistant to the Secretary General, he was in Canada as Economic and Commercial Counsellor for almost five years, a period of sharp growth in economic and high-tech cooperation between Italy and Canada. He was Consul General in Vancouver during Expo 86, where he promoted major events for Italian businesses and culture on Canada’s Pacific Coast.

In 1987, Terzi returned to Rome to serve first at the Department for Economic Affairs, focusing on high technology exchange, and later as Head of one of the Offices of the Department of Personnel and Human Resources. His next foreign assignment was to NATO in Brussels, where he was Political Adviser to the Italian Mission to the North Atlantic Council in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, German reunification, and the first Gulf War.

Later career

From 1993 to 1998, Terzi was in New York City at the Permanent Mission of Italy to the United Nations as First Counsellor for Political Affairs and later as Minister and Deputy Permanent Representative. During this period – marked by the Bosnian War, the Somali Civil War, as well as conflicts in the African Great Lakes region – Italy was a non-permanent member of the Security Council. By the mid-nineties globalisation and new challenges to international security underscored the need for major reforms of the UN bodies, a cause that Italy championed in all the UN fora.

Terzi served as deputy secretary general of Italy's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, director general for political affairs and human rights, and political director. In this capacity, his responsibilities included major international security and political issues, especially in the framework of the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly, and the UN Council on Human Rights, as well as the Council of the European Union, NATO, the G8, and OSCE. He also advised the Foreign Minister on international security, focusing on the Western Balkans, the Middle East, Afghanistan, East Africa, nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and human rights.

His most recent overseas posting was ambassador of Italy to Israel (2002–2004), a period characterized by the outbreak of the Second Intifada, improved relations between the EU and Israel during the Italian Presidency of the EU (July–December 2003), and the renewed commitment of Israel and the Palestinian Authority to the peace process on the basis of the road map.

Foreign minister

On 16 November 2011 Terzi was named Minister of Foreign Affairs in the technocratic cabinet headed by Prime Minister Mario Monti.

On November 16 2011 was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Monti’s government. During his tenure, he held 1,483 meetings and events, which covered 91 different countries with 75 official visits abroad and 138 meetings with other foreign ministers, of which 63 in Italy and 75 overseas. He was member of the “Westervelle Group”, composed by 11 European Foreign Ministers and aimed at supporting initiatives for “More Europe” in the European political integration process. He actively promoted UN moratorium on the death penalty resolution and other campaigns for human rights and fundamental freedoms. Within the EU and NATO Minister Terzi was a strong advocate for a renewed “Pratica di Mare” partnership with the Russian Federation in order to settle energy and Rule of Law issues, as well as European security concerns raising from East-West diverging positions on conventional and nuclear forces. He gave impulse to policies of diversification of energy supplies to Italy, by negotiating and signing during the 2012 UNGA in New York the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) between Albania, Greece and Italy, by strengthening relations with transitional Governments in Libya, and enhancing economic cooperation with Mozambique, Angola and Algeria. He pursued a reinforced Mediterranean political and economic cooperation in the Mediterranean region in the “5+5 Dialogue” framework , with Spain, France, Italy, Malta Portugal, Libya, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia, and other bilateral and multilateral initiatives through the EU, NATO and the UN. At the same time Minister Terzi did strive for a closer EU political, economic, and scientific cooperation with Israel and for the reactivation of the MEPP on the base of the two States solution. During his tenure Minister Terzi engaged in a more active Italian diplomacy for the Horn of Africa, by visiting and signing new agreements with Ethiopia and Somalia.

Terzi resigned from office on 26 March 2013 in the wake of calls for his resignation and severe criticism in Italy for his handling of the diplomatic dispute between Italy and India over the 2012 Enrica Lexie incident.

On 27 March 2013, Italian Prime-Minister Mario Monti addressed the Italian parliament and revealed that Giulio Terzi repeatedly hampered efforts to settle the dispute with India in a quiet manner by perpetuating controversies through hawkish statements posted on Twitter. Monti attributed the “hardening” of India’s stance to “rash” statements to the press by Terzi and concluded his parliamentary briefing on the debacle, saying that Italy’s strategy "shouldn’t have been the subject of premature statements to the press, which Minister Terzi decided instead to make, previewing a final result which at that point couldn’t be taken for granted,”.