| Celso Amorim | |
|---|---|
| Minister of Defence of Brazil | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 4 August 2011 |
|
| President | Dilma Rousseff |
| Preceded by | Nelson Jobim |
| Minister of External Relations of Brazil | |
| In office 1 January 2003 – 1 January 2011 |
|
| President | Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva |
| Preceded by | Celso Lafer |
| Succeeded by | Antonio Patriota |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Celso Nunes Amorim June 3, 1942 Santos, São Paulo, Brazil |
| Spouse(s) | Ana Maria Amorim |
| Residence | Brasília, Brazil |
| Profession | Diplomat, Politician |
Celso Luiz Nunes Amorim (born 3 June 1942) is a Brazilian diplomat who has been Minister of Defence since August 2011. Amorim was the Minister of Foreign Relations from 1993 to 1995 under President Itamar Franco and again from 2003 to 2011 under President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.[1]
Before his appointment by Lula, Amorim served as Brazil's ambassador to the United Kingdom.[2] On 7 October 2009, Amorim was named the "world's best foreign minister" by Foreign Policy magazine blogger David Rothkopf.[3] On 4 August 2011, Amorim was invited by President Dilma Rousseff to assume the Ministry of Defence.[4]
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Amorim was born in Santos, São Paulo, on 3 June 1942. He is married to Ana Maria Amorim and has four children: Vicente, Anita, João, and Pedro.[5]
He graduated from the Rio Branco Institute, an undergraduate school of international relations run by the Ministry of External Relations, in 1965, and obtained his post-graduate degree in International Relations from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna in 1967.
Amorim was a Portuguese language professor at the Rio Branco Institute, as well as political science and international relations professor at the University of Brasília. He is a permanent member of the Foreign Affairs Department of the University of São Paulo Institute of Advanced Studies.
Amorim has a long history of government service, beginning in 1987 when he was appointed Secretary for International Affairs for the Ministry of Science and Technology. He served in that position until 1989, when he was selected to be the Director-General for Cultural Affairs in the Ministry of External Relations. Amorim would be shifted again in 1990, moving to a new post as Director-General for Economic Affairs. In 1993, he was promoted to the position of Secretary General of the Brazilian foreign-affairs agency.
While serving in the Ministry of External Relations, Amorim spent large amounts of time working as an ambassador to the United Nations. Most notably, he represented Brazil on the Kosovo – Yugoslavia sanctions committee in 1998, and the Security Council panel on Iraq in 1999. Amorim was named as Brazil's permanent ambassador to the United Nations and the WTO later that year, and served for two years before taking assignment as the ambassador to the United Kingdom in 2001.
On 19 July 2008, Amorim stirred up controversy by comparing the descriptions used by wealthier countries to characterize the agricultural concessions they were offering during the Doha Round of WTO talks to the work of Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels. This brought a swift condemnation from the U.S. State Department.[6]
On 4 August 2011, Amorim was appointed by Dilma Rousseff to replace Nelson Jobim as Minister of Defence. Jobim's resignation came after he called Ideli Salvatti, Secretary of Institutional Relations, weak and criticized Gleisi Hoffmann, Rousseff's chief of staff, as someone who "doesn't even know Brasília". Jobim had increasingly expressed his displeasure with the government. He had said that he was surrounded by "idiots" in the administration and angered government colleagues even further after he admitted in an interview that he had voted for José Serra, Rousseff's main opponent in the presidential election.
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Fernando Henrique Cardoso |
Minister of Foreign Relations 1993–1995 |
Succeeded by [uiz Felipe Lampreia |
| Preceded by Celso Lafer |
Minister of Foreign Relations 2003–2011 |
Succeeded by Antonio Patriota |
| Preceded by Nelson Jobim |
Minister of Defence 2011–Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |