This is a list of diplomatic missions of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, excluding honorary consulates. The UK has one of the largest global networks of diplomatic missions. UK diplomatic missions to capitals of other Commonwealth of Nations member countries are known as High Commissions (headed by 'High Commissioners'). For three Commonwealth countries (namely India, Nigeria, and Pakistan), the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) still uses the term "Deputy High Commission" for Consulates-General (headed by Deputy High Commissioners), although this terminology is being phased out. [1] British citizens may get help from the embassy of any other commonwealth country present, when in a country where there is no British embassy, including New Zealand and Australia, to help British nationals in some countries.
In 2004, the FCDO carried out a review of the deployment of its diplomatic missions, and subsequently over a two-year period closed its missions in Nassau (in the Bahamas), Asunción (Paraguay), Dili (East Timor), Maseru (Lesotho), Mbabane (Swaziland), Antananarivo (Madagascar), Nuku'alofa (Tonga), Tarawa (Kiribati), and Port Vila (Vanuatu). Additionally several consulates and trade offices were also closed, including those in Fukuoka (Japan), Vientiane (Laos), Douala (Cameroon), Porto (Portugal), along with Frankfurt, Leipzig, and Stuttgart in Germany, and Phoenix, San Juan, and Dallas in the United States. Other consulates in Australia, Germany, France, Spain, New Zealand, and the US were downgraded and staffed by local personnel only. [2] In 2012, Foreign Secretary William Hague announced the opening of embassies in Liberia and Haiti, the re-opening of embassies in Laos, El Salvador, and Paraguay, and the opening of a Consulate-General in Recife (Brazil). He also said that by 2015, the UK would have opened up to eleven new embassies and eight new Consulates or Trade Offices. [3] In 2013, a UK government office was established in Seattle. [4] In 2014, all services at the former UK Consulate in Orlando were transferred to the nearby UK Consulate-General in Miami. [5] In 2015, the UK Consulate-General in Denver was reclassified as a UK Government Office. [6] In 2018 the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has announced that new High Commissions will open in Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Grenada, Lesotho, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Swaziland, Tonga and Vanuatu and a British office in Somaliland like the one in Taipei, Taiwan [7]
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office employs approximately 13,200 staff in the UK and in more than 260 Posts overseas. Approximately one-third of these employees are UK-based civil servants (including members of HM Diplomatic Service) and two-thirds are employed locally by Posts overseas. [8]
Host country | Host city | Mission | Year closed | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Cameroon | Douala | Consulate | 2005 | [8] [21] |
Congo-Brazzaville | Brazzaville | Embassy | 1991/2 | [21] |
Gabon | Libreville | Embassy | 1991/2 | [21] |
Libya | Benghazi | Consulate | 2012 | [22] |
Sudan | Khartoum | Embassy | 2023 | [23] |
Host country | Host city | Mission level | Year closed | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Colombia | Barranquilla | Consulate | 1998 | [8] |
Cali | Consulate | 2014 | [24] | |
Cartagena | Consulate | 2014 | [24] | |
Honduras | Tegucigalpa | Embassy | 2003 | [8] [25] |
Nicaragua | Managua | Embassy | 2003 | [8] |
United States | Cleveland | Consulate | 1999 | [8] |
Dallas | Consulate | 2005 | [8] [26] | |
Orlando | Consulate | 2014 | [27] | |
San Juan, Puerto Rico | Consulate | 2005 | [8] [26] |
Host country | Host city | Mission | Year closed | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Afghanistan | Kabul | Embassy | 2021 | |
East Timor | Dili | Embassy | 2007 | [8] |
Iraq | Basra | Consulate | 2012 | [24] |
Japan | Fukuoka | Consulate | 2006 | [8] |
Hakodate | Consulate | 1934 | [28] | |
Nagoya | Consulate | 2007 | [8] | |
Shimonoseki | Consulate | 1940 | [29] | |
Yokohama | Consulate | 1972 | ||
Malaysia | Kuching | Consulate General | 1999 | [8] |
Republic of China | Kashgar | Consulate-General | 1949 | [30] |
South Vietnam [a] | Saigon | Embassy | 1975 | [31] |
Syria | Damascus | Embassy | 2012 | [8] [24] |
Thailand | Chiang Mai | Consulate | 1999 | [8] |
Pattaya | Consulate | 2012 | [24] [32] | |
Yemen | Sanaa | Embassy | 2015 | [33] |
Aden | Consulate-General | 2005 | [8] |
Host country | Host city | Mission | Year closed | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
France | Calais | Consulate | 1980 | [34] |
Lille | Consulate-General | 2011 | [8] [24] | |
Lyon | Consulate-General | 2012 | [24] | |
Germany | Bonn | Embassy branch office | 2002 | [35] |
Frankfurt | Consulate General | 2005 | [36] | |
Hamburg | Consulate General | 2006 | [37] | |
Leipzig | Consulate General | 2005 | [36] | |
Stuttgart | Consulate General | 2006 | [36] | |
Italy | Florence | Consulate | 2011 | [24] [38] |
Naples | Consulate | 2012 | [38] | |
Turin | Consulate | 2006 | [21] [39] | |
Venice | Consulate-General | 2011 | [24] | |
Greece | Thessaloniki | Consular office | 2013 | [24] |
Portugal | Funchal | Consulate | 2012 | [24] |
Porto | Consular office | 2012 | [24] | |
Russia | Saint Petersburg | Consulate General | 2018 | [40] |
Spain | Seville | Consulate | 2001 | [8] |
Sweden | Gothenburg | Consulate-General | 2006 | [8] |
Switzerland | Geneva | Consulate-General | 2010 | [24] |
Zürich | Consulate-General | 1998 | [8] |
Host country | Host city | Mission | Year closed | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
Australia | Adelaide | Consulate | 2006 | [8] [21] |
Kiribati | Tarawa | High Commission | 1994 | [41] |
The United Kingdom is one of two countries, the other being Thailand, that use diplomatic flags abroad. These special flags are flown at the chanceries of their embassies and consulates. For High Commissions, the Union Flag is used. In addition, there is a flag in use for British consular vessels in international or foreign waters.
Flag | Use | Description |
---|---|---|
Flag used by British Embassies | A Union Flag defaced with the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom | |
Flag used by British High Commissions | A Union Flag | |
Flag used by British Consulates and Consulates-General | A Union Flag defaced with the St Edward’s Crown | |
Flag used by Consular officials onboard vessels | A Blue Ensign with the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom |
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.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) is the ministry of foreign affairs and a ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom.
The Heads of British diplomatic missions are persons appointed as senior diplomats to individual nations, or international organizations. They are usually appointed as ambassadors, except in member countries of the Commonwealth of Nations where a high commissioner is appointed. The head of mission to an international organization is usually a permanent representative. For some nations a consul or consul-general is appointed.
Diplomatic rank is a system of professional and social rank used in the world of diplomacy and international relations. A diplomat's rank determines many ceremonial details, such as the order of precedence at official processions, table seatings at state dinners, the person to whom diplomatic credentials should be presented, and the title by which the diplomat should be addressed.
A consul is an official representative of a government who resides in a foreign country to assist and protect citizens of the consul's country, and to promote and facilitate commercial and diplomatic relations between the two 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.
In the Commonwealth of Nations, a high commissioner is the senior diplomat, generally ranking as an ambassador, in charge of the diplomatic mission of one Commonwealth government to another. Instead of an embassy, the diplomatic mission is generally called a high commission.
British Office Taipei, formerly British Trade and Cultural Office (BTCO), is the representative office of the United Kingdom Government in Taiwan. It maintains and develops financial, educational, cultural, and technological relations and provides assistance to British nationals in Taiwan. It functions as a de facto embassy in the absence of diplomatic relations between London and Taipei.
The Consulate-General of the United Kingdom in Saint Petersburg was part of the diplomatic mission of the United Kingdom in the Russian Federation, before it was closed down in 2018. It was located on Lafonskaya Street in Tsentralny District.
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