Mihai Răzvan Ungureanu (born September 22, 1968, in Iaşi) is a Romanian historian, diplomat and politician. He was the foreign minister of Romania from December 28, 2004 to March 12, 2007. He is a member of the National Liberal Party, which was part of the Justice and Truth Alliance, whose candidate Traian Băsescu won a presidential election shortly before Ungureanu became foreign minister.

Biography

From 1985 to 1989, Ungureanu was an alternate member of the Union of Communist Youth Central Committee. After finishing his undergraduate studies in history and philosophy at the University of Iaşi in 1992, he went to the Oxford Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies, an affiliated programme of St Cross College at the University of Oxford, where he obtained a Master's degree in 1993. He received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Iaşi in 2004.

Ungureanu was a professor at the University of Iaşi when he was recruited to the diplomatic service in 1998. He previously served as State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1998-2000), and was a Vienna-based representative of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe (2000-2004). Married with one son, he speaks eight languages.

On February 2, 2007, it was announced that Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu had requested Ungureanu's resignation because Ungureanu had failed to tell the government about the detention of two Romanian workers by coalition forces in Iraq, and that Ungureanu had agreed to resign. On February 4, Ungureanu confirmed this, and he presented his official resignation on February 5. Popescu-Tăriceanu said that Ungureanu would continue to act as foreign minister until the swearing in of a successor. On March 12, President Traian Băsescu signed a decree removing Ungureanu from his position. That November 27, Băsescu nominated Ungureanu to head the Foreign Intelligence Service, the directorship of which had been vacant since Claudiu Săftoiu's March 19 resignation. A joint session of Parliament confirmed Ungureanu in his new position on December 5, with 295 of 318 MPs present voting in favour.

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