Former Maltese diplomat Ives De Barro has passed away at the age of 85. De Barro had joined the diplomatic service in the 1960s after having served in the media including The Times of Malta in the 1950s.
For many years he led the first Maltese Embassy in Egypt, while also having served as Ambassador to Libya and Tunisia, as well as High Commissioner to Australia.
The Nationalist Party, through its spokespeople Carm Mifsud Bonnici and Roselyn Borg Knight, honoured his memory and paid their respects.
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion also expresses its deepest condolences to De Barro’s family
Former Ambassador Ives De Barro joined the Maltese Diplomatic Service in July 1967. As Second Secretary, he served in the Maltese Embassy in Tripoli, Libya between 1969 and 1974. From 1974 till 1978, he was posted to Rome as First Secretary. In 1982 he was appointed Head of the Ministry’s Administration Division assisting in the coordination of the Maltese embassies overseas.
Ambassador De Barro re-joined the diplomatic service in 1987. He was posted to Paris during the same year as Deputy Head of Mission and simultaneously held the posts of Deputy Permanent Delegate to UNESCO in Paris and Deputy Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe’s Council of Ministers’ Deputies in Strasbourg.
Climbing the career ladder in 1989 as Counsellor, and as First Counsellor in 1991, he was already serving as Malta’s first resident Ambassador to Egypt. Concurrently to his tour of duty in Cairo, in 1994 he was nominated as Malta’s non-resident Ambassador to Turkey, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.
In 1999 Ives De Barro was appointed as High Commissioner to Australia with residence in Canberra. In 2000 he presented his credentials as High Commissioner of Malta to New Zealand.
Following that, in 2002 he was appointed as Malta’s Ambassador to Tunisia, following which in 2005, Ambassador De Barro subsequently served as Adviser within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Ministry state that, “All who knew Ambassador De Barro, knew him to be a gentleman of a jovial character.
“He loved culture, books, the arts, life itself and was a remarkable example of diplomatic behaviour.”