[2] After a domestic stint as head of the Foreign Ministry's Political Affairs Department, in 1971 he became ambassador to France and Greece's Permanent Delegate to the UNESCO.
Following the fall of the Greek military junta in 1974, he became Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations, a post he held until 1979.
[citation needed] Papoulias' first term as Foreign Minister was in the Ioannis Grivas interim government from 12 October until 23 November 1989.
He was re-appointed to the foreign ministry for a second time in the Xenophon Zolotas cabinet from 16 February until 11 April 1990.
Georgios Papoulias died from an apparent suicide by gunshot on September 11, 2009, at the age of 82, following serious health problems.