Since 7 December 2023, Embassy Counsellor Silvia Costantini has been Head of the South Asia Office at the Directorate General for Globalisation and Global Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI).
In this capacity she is responsible for: bilateral relations between Italy and 7 countries hosting 25% of the world’s population and from which 4 of the first 12 non-EU immigrant communities in Italy originate (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives); multilateral relations in some regional fora: Indian Ocean Rim Association, South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation. In the four-year period 2019-23, she held the double hat of Consul General of Italy in Montreal (Québec, Canada), at the third Italian Consular Office in North America, for the Italian and Oriunda collectivity, and Permanent Representative of Italy to the ICAO, also elected – by acclamation – Vice-President of the Council (2022-23). Previously, she held other diplomatic posts at: European External Action Service (2011-19) in Brussels as Team Leader of the European Union (EU) Armed Conflict Early Warning System (2015-19), in New Delhi as First Policy Adviser at the EU Delegation to India and Bhutan (2011-15), where she concluded, inter alia, the EU-India Common Agenda on Migration and Mobility; MAECI (2000-2011) at the Italian Embassy in Tunis, before during and after the Arab Spring, where she was responsible for the Lampedusa dossier (2008-11); at the Consulate General 1st Class in Shanghai (2004-08); at the Directorate General for European Integration (External Relations). European Commission (2000) as PHARE project manager at the Delegation in Tirana. Silvia Costantini holds a degree in International and Diplomatic Sciences from Gorizia, summa cum laude, academic honours and dignity for her thesis. She holds a Master’s degree in Advanced European Studies from the College of Europe in Natolin (Poland) and a Diploma in Diplomatic Studies from the SIOI in Rome. She has been awarded the honours of: Cavaliere dell’Ordine del Merito della Repubblica Italiana (2014); Circle de la Fleur de Lys du Québec (2024); ‘Ambassadrice’ de Institut de Tourisme et Hôtellerie du Québec (ITHQ, 2023); Cavaliere Onorario dell’Ordine dei Tartufi e dei Vini d’Alba (2022). Over the past decade, he has also been active in public diplomacy. He has to his credit: ± 200 interactions as a lecturer for over 14,000 people in India and Europe; 104 episodes of the Vivere all’Italiana segment of the programme Vivere Bene co-produced for the Italian schedule of the Quebec multicultural channel ICI Television; over 100 interviews, also live on RAI; 135 articles on consular/community issues and the Promotion of the Country System in the weekly published (and online) column La Console Generale d’Italia risponde in two Italian periodicals in Montréal (Corriere Italiano and Cittadino Canadese), bimonthly Le Eccellenze Italiane, in La Voce (Canada). She is a speaker at international events. Fluent in English, French and Spanish, she has so far studied nine other foreign languages (Chinese, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Polish, German, Hindi, Albanian, Esperanto).
