Diplomatic mission

A diplomatic mission is an official office through which one state conducts relations with another state or international organization. It represents the sending state and carries out diplomatic functions.

Diplomatic law: The body of international law governing diplomatic relations, missions, and personnel. Its rules define the rights and duties that make a mission official.
Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations: The 1961 treaty codifying rules on diplomatic relations, missions, and privileges. It supplies the central legal framework for resident diplomatic missions.
Embassy: A permanent diplomatic mission maintained by one state in another state’s capital. It is the standard resident mission for bilateral relations between states.
Diplomatic recognition: A state’s acknowledgment of another entity as a state or government for international relations. Recognition and maintaining a mission are related but legally distinct choices.
Sending state: The state that establishes a diplomatic mission and appoints its representatives. It directs the mission and remains responsible for its diplomatic acts.
Agrément: A receiving state’s advance approval of a proposed ambassador. It lets the host state accept or reject a mission’s prospective chief.
Consulate: An official office that provides consular services and supports a state’s nationals abroad. It often handles practical services distinct from an embassy’s political representation.
Special mission: A temporary state delegation sent to another state with its consent for a specific task. Unlike a resident mission, it is temporary and organized around a defined purpose.
Receiving state: The state that accepts a foreign diplomatic mission on its territory. Its consent is required for the mission’s establishment and diplomatic presence.
Letters of credence: Formal documents by which a head of state accredits an ambassador to another head of state. Their presentation commonly marks the ambassador’s formal assumption of duties.

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