Apostolic Nuncio
In 1980, Martino was named apostolic pro-nuncio to Thailand and Singapore and apostolic delegate to Laos and Malaysia and was named Archbishop of the titular see of Segerme. In 1983, he was named apostolic delegate to Brunei Darussalam, while retaining his other posts.
In 1986, he was appointed Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations. He was on duty during the United States invasion of Panama, when President Noriega had taken refuge at the Vatican embassy.
In 1991, he opposed the American-led invasion of Iraq and was later critical of state sanctions against Iraq. In 1992, he participated at the UN Conference for the environment in Rio de Janeiro, speaking about the centrality of the human person.
In June 1994, Martino demanded at the UN that a safe haven be created for Tutsi refugees in Rwanda in order to save over 30 000 lives in Kabgayi.
Archbishop Martino was Pope John Paul II's official representative at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development, and he had the difficult task of defending the Church's pro-life teachings before a European-American bloc that strongly supported abortion on demand. In the end, however, Martino was able to find support from Latin-American and Arab countries that were anti-abortion, and the Cairo conference was ultimately inconclusive.
Later in 1995, he participated at the World Conference on Women in Beijing, echoing John Paul's positions in his letter to women. He has been on diplomatic mission to Côte d'Ivoire to settle disputes there.
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