Aureliu Ciocoi

Aureliu Ciocoi (born 5 June 1968) is a Moldovan diplomat and politician who served as Acting Prime Minister of Moldova from December 2020 to August 2021. He is currently the country's ambassador to Germany and Denmark. Prior positions that Ciocoi held include being the country's Minister of Foreign Affairs and former ambassador to the United States, China and Vietnam.

Ciocoi was named acting prime minister on 31 December 2020 after Ion Chicu, who submitted his resignation a week earlier, refused to stay on in an acting capacity until a new government was formed.

Biography
Aureliu Ciocoi was born on 5 June 1968 in Chișinău. He graduated from the Primary, Secondary and High School No. 11 (today the Lyceum "Ion Creangă"). From 1986 to 1988, he was a soldier in the Soviet Border Troops of the KGB. Between 1985 and 1992, he studied at the Faculty of Journalism and Communication Sciences of the Moldova State University. From 1992 to 1994, he studied at the Faculty of International Relations of the National University of Political Studies and Public Administration in Bucharest, Romania. While studying at the university, he worked at the Central Publishing House in Chișinău.

After the fall of the Soviet Union, he became a journalist for several daily newspapers. He worked as ambassador to Germany and Denmark from 2010 to 2015, as well as to China and Vietnam from 2015 to 2017. He also briefly served as ambassador to the United States in 2017. From 2018 to 2019, he was an adviser to President Igor Dodon on foreign policy issues. After resigning from the cabinet on 9 November, he was appointed as foreign minister once again. On 31 December 2020, President Maia Sandu appointed him as interim prime minister after Prime Minister Ion Chicu resigned on 23 December.

Personal life
He is married and has one child. He speaks fluent Romanian, Russian, English, German, and French. He was a sportsman in the 1980s, being a Master of Sport of the USSR and a member of the Moldovan national junior team in shooting. His hobbies include philosophy, literature, and theater.

Awards

 * Great Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (November 2015)