After Piero Benassi , now Luigi Mattiolo . The last two diplomatic advisers of Palazzo Chigi have in common the origin: Berlin. Giuseppe Conte had chosen as his diplomatic adviser Piero Benassi, the Italian ambassador to Germany who had facilitated his dialogue with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel , before appointing him on 21 December as undersecretary to the presidency of the Council with the delegation to the Services. It was Mattiolo himself who succeeded Benassi in Berlin, whom President Mario Draghi today appointed as his diplomatic adviser and personal / sherpa representative for the G7 and G20 summits. THE PROFILE
Mattiolo, born in Rome on 28 October 1957, graduated in political science from the University of Rome, and entered diplomacy in 1981. And his name was already circulating in 2018 as diplomatic adviser to the then President Conte. For him it is not the first time at Palazzo Chigi: in fact he served in the Office of the Diplomatic Advisor to the Presidency of the Council of Ministers between 1993 and 1995. In 2005 he was plenipotentiary minister at the Permanent Representation at the Atlantic Council in Brussels . In 2008 he was appointed ambassador to Tel Aviv, Israel. From 2012 to 2015 he was director general for the European Union at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Appointed ambassador in 2013, he has been ambassador to Ankara, Turkey since 2015 before going to Berlin.
The Ambassador of Italy to Germany Luigi #Mattiolo, participating in the #lichtfenster initiative launched by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as a sign of closeness and solidarity with the victims of the pandemic, this evening lit a candle @ItalyinGermany
pic.twitter.com / ipuZR1PzlX
– Italy in Germany (@ItalyinGermany) January 22, 2021 US-GERMANY TIES
A month ago he was interviewed by the website IlBollettino.eu. On the occasion, he said: “Germany clearly welcomed [ Joe ] Biden ‘s victoryat the White House and emphasized the issues on which a strong political convergence is expected between the two sides of the Atlantic: climate change, multilateralism or the fight against the pandemic ”. However, he continued, “a series of open questions remain on the table in economic, political and security matters, but certainly the relationship between Berlin and Washington will be a priority for the next German government, whatever its composition”. THE CHINA
In the same interview he spoke of Germany: “The vision of Germany remains linked to the guidelines of foreign policy defined by the German government: European cohesion and sovereignty, transatlantic partnership, multilateralism, promotion of democracy and defense of human rights. At the same time, these areas – which I would define traditional – of Berlin’s foreign policy, are accompanied by growing attention to the Indo-Pacific area (which is the subject of an ad hoc strategy presented in recent months), the Sahel and North Africa (I recall in in particular the Berlin Conference on Libya), as well as Latin America ”. THE GERMAN POLICY
But also of China, which with “with 206 billion euros (data of 2019) is now the first partner in terms of commercial exchange and in this perspective can be read the commitment made in the last days of the German Presidency of the EU Council to achieve a general agreement on the investment agreement with China (CAI) “.
(Photo: Twitter, @ItalyinGermany)
