Diplomatic missions are a fundamental aspect of a country’s foreign policy, serving as key role for maintaining bilateral relations, protecting citizens, promoting economic interests, towards to global cooperation and understanding. Embassies, consulates, and missions are the places where government representatives serve in foreign countries and takes place with mutual consent between countries.

The Vienna Convention of Diplomatic Relations, aims is to facilitate “the development of friendly relations” among governments through a uniform set of practices and principles, most notably, it codifies the longstanding custom of diplomatic immunity, in which diplomatic missions are granted privileges that enable diplomats to perform their functions without fear of coercion or harassment by the host country.

According to Global Diplomacy Index by Lowy institute –  China, US and France are the top 3 countries in the World to have the most diplomatic posts/missions abroad, thus establishing biggest diplomatic footprint around the world.

Before we head below, let’s understand a bit about embassy and consulates and difference in their workings. The Embassies, Consulates and High commissions are established to extend diplomacy and assist their citizens during emergency.

So what are the differences?

  • Embassy is a diplomatic mission generally located in the capital city of another country which offers a full range of services, including consular services. Embassy and diplomatic employees have full and absolute inviolability and immunities towards host state authorities including its judiciary
  • High commission is an embassy of a Commonwealth country located in another Commonwealth country.
  • Permanent mission is a diplomatic mission to a major international organization (eg UN). All missions to the United Nations are known simply as permanent missions, while EU member states’ missions to the European Union are known as permanent representations, and the head of such a mission is typically both a permanent representative and an ambassador.
  • Consulate General is a diplomatic mission located usually other than the capital city, which provides a full range of consular services. consulate and consular employees only have limited inviolability and immunities
  • Consulate is a diplomatic mission that is similar to a consulate general, but may not provide a full range of services ( only limited service).

Top Countries

These are  the list of top countries that have the most diplomatic missions abroad for 2021.

Diplomatic missions

Source: Global Diplomacy Index 2021 

Rank Country Number of total posts Embassies/
High Commissions
Consulates/
Consulates-General
Permanent missions
Other
representations
1 China 275 171 92 10 8
2 United States 267 167 82 11 3
3 France 264 161 89 15 2
4 Japan 258 153 70 13 22
5 Turkey[2] 254 146 93 13 2
6 Russia 243 144 85 11 2
7 Germany 227 153 61 12 1
8 Brazil 222 138 70 12 2
9 Spain 215 115 89 10 1
10 United Kingdom 209 151 45 10 3
11 India 206 139 54 5 4
12 Italy 205 122 75 5 3
13 South Korea 202 128 55 6 13
14 Argentina 172 92 67 10 3
15 Mexico 157 80 67 7 3
16 Netherlands 153 94 49 8 2
17 Sweden 152 107 29 12 4
18 Libya 149 119 22 8 0
19 Switzerland 146 103 30 10 3
European Union 145 0 0 145 0
20 Canada 144 96 36 10 2
21 Iran 140 99 35 4 2
22 Australia 136 88 36 9 3
23 Greece 135 82 43 9 1
24 Indonesia 132 94 34 3 1
25 Hungary 131 86 35 7 3
26 Portugal 129 72 48 8 1
27 Chile 128 70 51 6 1
28 Saudi Arabia 127 102 22 2 1
29 South Africa 124 106 14 2 2
30 Romania 119 82 23 9 5
31 Poland 118 81 31 4 2
32 Pakistan 117 85 30 2 0
32 Czech Republic 116 90 19 5 2
33 Malaysia 108 80 23 4 1
35 Taiwan 107 15 2 1 89
36 Belgium 106 89 9 7 1
37 Israel 104 77 20 6 1
38 Bulgaria 101 77 17 6 1
39 Norway 100 80 9 10 1
40 Austria 99 80 10 7 2
41 Thailand 98 65 29 3 1
42 Vietnam 96 69 22 4 1
43 New Zealand 92 56 30 6 0
44 Denmark 89 67 14 6 2
45 Ireland 88 67 14 6 1
46 Philippines 87 60 23 4 0
47 Finland 85 70 6 6 3
48 Slovakia 81 63 8 8 2
49 Bangladesh 75 57 16 2 0
50 Croatia 72 50 17 4 1
51 Sri Lanka 67 51 13 2 1
52 Lithuania 61 40 12 8 1
53 Cyprus 59 43 7 8 1
54 Nigeria 56 42 6 7 1
55 Slovenia 54 41 5 7 1
56 North Korea 52 47 3 2 0
57 Singapore 50 28 17 4 1
58 Latvia 49 39 3 7 0
59 Estonia 48 40 2 6 0
60 Egypt 47 38 5 3 1
61 Myanmar 46 38 6 2 0
62 Malta 45 30 7 7 1
63 Algeria 44 28 8 6 2
64 Mongolia 43 30 11 1 1
65 Brunei 42 35 4 3 0
66 Nepal 40 32 7 1 0
67 Laos 39 26 10 3 0
68 Cambodia 38 25 10 3 0
69 Luxembourg 37 26 7 3 1
70 Iceland 25 16 4 5 0
71 Bhutan 9 5 2 2 0

Source: Global Diplomacy Index 2021 / Lowy Institute