ROME – In the session of the Council of Ministers, the government has appointed a series of new ambassadors, even in very delicate places. The first rotation is that of Ambassador Giampaolo Cantini, who for 4 years was the representative of Italy in Cairo. His replacement will be Ambassador Michele Quaroni, who is now number two in the representation at the EU. The Egyptian office is very delicate because relations between Italy and Egypt in recent years have been marked by the case of Giulio Regeni, the Italian researcher found dead in Cairo in 2016 and for whom the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office has put some Egyptian policemen under investigation.
On Wednesday evening, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio had a phone call with his Egyptian colleague Shukri, in which he updated him on his recent trip to Libya, addressed the issue of the coup in Tunisia and then the “protection of human rights” in Egypt, which is the formula that the Farnesina uses to recall the Regeni question.
In addition to the new ambassador to Egypt, new heads of mission have been chosen in Turkey, Iraq, Guinea and Congo. In Ankara the Italian ambassador will be Giorgio Marrapodi; Maurizio Greganti will arrive in Iraq, Stefano Pontesilli in Guinea and Luigi Diodati in Congo.
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