NEW YORK, JULY 19 – “Our common task is to overcome the health crisis caused by the pandemic, to focus on an economic and social recovery based on resilience and a renewed commitment to the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals and the respect of human rights”: with this commitment Ambassador Maurizio Massari took over as Permanent Representative of Italy to the United Nations.
“I am beginning my mission in a decisive year”, said Massari noting that in 2021 Italy has taken on special commitments, through its G20 Presidency and the partnership with the United Kingdom in the preparations for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), and its leading role in organizing the Food Systems Summit. “It is a context in which international cooperation and multilateralism, which are firmly anchored in our Constitution, are more than ever the most – I would say the only – effective tools to face today’s complex challenges”. The Italian Permanent Representative stressed that his task will be that of further strengthening Italy’s support for UN activities: “We are the 7th top contributor to the UN’s regular budget and first Troop Contributing Country among Western states for peacekeeping operations. Italy hosts important UN agencies and offices, such as the agro-food hub comprising the FAO, IFAD and the WFP; the UN Humanitarian Response Depot (UNHRD) in Brindisi and others.
As of January 2022, Italy will also join the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) for the 2022-2024 triennium, thus leading the way toward the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Furthermore, Italy intends to continue, together with the entire European Union, to be an ever-closer and effective partner of the UN in the pursuit of its missions. To this end, a strong and united Europe is indispensable”.
A career diplomat with over thirty years of experience, Maurizio Massari has also served as the Permanent Representative of Italy to the European Union (June 2016 – May 2021), and as Special Envoy of the Italian Foreign Minister for the Mediterranean and the Middle East (2016-2018). Having served in the Soviet Union from 1986 to 1990, he has published books in Italian on political reforms under Mikhail Gorbachev (La Grande Svolta: Le Riforme Politiche in Unione Sovietica 1986-1990) and on post-Communist Russia (Russia: democrazia europea o potenza globale, 2009). (@OnuItalia)