Mr. Luigi Di Maio was appointed as the first EU Special Representative for the Gulf region on 15 May 2023.

Di Maio served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy from September 2019 to October 2022, and in 2022 was President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. From June 2018 to September 2019 he held the positions of Deputy Prime Minister of Italy, Minister of Economic Development and Trade, Minister of Labour and Social Policies. From March 2013 to March 2018 Di Maio was Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies and a Member of the European Union Affairs Committee in the 17th Italian legislature.

During his mandate as Foreign Minister he chaired, among others, the G20 Foreign Affairs Ministers' meeting, the G20 Trade Ministers' meeting, the G20 Ministerial Meeting on Afghanistan, the June 2021 plenary Ministerial Meeting of the International Anti-Daesh Coalition, and the first Mediterranean Ministerial Dialogue on the Food Security Crisis in June 2022.

Di Maio was the chair of three annual editions (2019, 2020, 2021) of the MED Dialogue Conference, aiming to develop a positive agenda for the wider Mediterranean region, at a time of pandemic and political and economic transition, based on multilateralism as a strategy for conflict resolution.