Following his imposition of a royal dictatorship, Carol II reconfirmed Gigurtu as a member of the Superior Economic Council in April 1938. He then made him Public Works and Communications Minister (November 1939–June 1940), Foreign Minister (June 1–June 28, 1940) and state secretary with ministerial rank (June 28–July 4, 1940) in successive cabinets led by Gheorghe Tătărescu. This coincided with a dire situation, in which the Soviet Union pressured Romania into ceding the regions of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina ("see Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina"). As a member of the specially-convened Crown Council, Gigurtu himself participated in the decision to accept Soviet demands. As the country was left isolated when its alliance with the United Kingdom and France crumbled, and came under increasing pressure from Nazi Germany, Carol dismissed Tătărescu. Earlier, Gigurtu's appointment as Foreign Minister had marked a turn toward Germany: he was replacing the Western-oriented Grigore Gafencu, who favoured a continuation of Romania's policy of official neutrality, and this immediately led to a treaty committing delivery of a fixed quantity of Romanian petroleum to Germany in exchange for military equipment.