Canada has an extensive diplomatic network maintained by Global Affairs Canada.
As a Commonwealth country, Canada's diplomatic missions in the capitals of other Commonwealth countries are referred to as High Commissions (as opposed to embassies). Canada has diplomatic and consular offices (including honorary consuls that are not included in this list) in over 270 locations in approximately 180 foreign countries.
Under the terms of the Canada–Australia Consular Services Sharing Agreement, the two countries provide consular services to each other's citizens at a number of locations around the world. At this time, there are 19 locations where Canadian offices provide consular services to Australians, and 12 other cities where Canadians can obtain consular services from Australian offices. In an emergency, Canadians can also seek assistance from British offices around the world if there is no resident Canadian office.
The province of Quebec has its own Ministry of International Relations (French: Ministère des Relations internationales) and a network of 33 offices in 18 countries "to promote and defend Québec's interests internationally while ensuring respect for its authority and the consistency of government activities." [1] Other provinces, such as Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario, also maintain offices abroad. [2]
From 2 June 2019, Canada suspended embassy operations in Caracas, Venezuela effective immediately because its diplomats were no longer able to obtain visas. Minister Chrystia Freeland said in a statement that "President Nicolás Maduro’s regime has taken steps to limit the ability of foreign embassies to function in Venezuela” and "that Canadian diplomats in Venezuela will no longer be in a position to obtain diplomatic accreditation under the Maduro regime." [3] The Canadian Embassy in Bogotá, Colombia now handles consular assistance for Canadian citizens living in Venezuela. [4]
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually denotes an embassy or high commission, which is the main office of a country's diplomatic representatives to another country; it is usually, but not necessarily, based in the receiving state's capital city. Consulates, on the other hand, are smaller diplomatic missions that are normally located in major cities of the receiving state. As well as being a diplomatic mission to the country in which it is situated, an embassy may also be a nonresident permanent mission to one or more other countries.
A consulate is the office of a consul. A type of diplomatic mission, it is usually subordinate to the state's main representation in the capital of that foreign country, usually an embassy. The term "consulate" may refer not only to the office of a consul, but also to the building occupied by the consul and the consul's staff. The consulate may share premises with the embassy itself.