• UnspecificGravity@piefed.social
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    12 hours ago

    Ransoming countrymen of the represented country is literally one of the oldest diplomatic functions on earth and is a big part of why embassies were established in the first place.

    Your own source literally defines the term “diplomatic mission” as:

    The basic role of a diplomatic mission is to represent and safeguard the interests of the home country and its citizens in the host country

    So no, looking after the citizens of the represented country is NOT “secondary to the diplomatic mission” it IS the diplomatic mission.

    • fossilesque@mander.xyzOP
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      12 hours ago

      Embassies can deprioritise citizen services when diplomatic relations within the host state make it politically costly to physically impossible, which is exactly what’s happening here. That’s the substantive point about the article and why citizen services are not even mentioned in the introduction.

      • UnspecificGravity@piefed.social
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        12 hours ago

        Shame that’s not what you said when I replied to you and then repeated several times in the course of this discussion.

        Their main purpose, though, is to represent the state for relations and dealings with the host, citizen services are secondary to this.

        • fossilesque@mander.xyzOP
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          12 hours ago

          I meant is it’s not a service I’d depend on in a regional crisis as they can and will deprioritse it. It is not the main mission as the following passage to that sentence shows:

          The functions of a diplomatic mission consist, inter alia, in representing the sending State in the receiving State; protecting in the receiving State the interests of the sending State and of its nationals, within the limits permitted by international law; negotiating with the Government of the receiving State; ascertaining by all lawful means conditions and developments in the receiving State, and reporting thereon to the Government of the sending State; promoting friendly relations between the sending State and the receiving State, and developing their economic, cultural and scientific relations.[18]

          It’s not even rare for embassies outside of the first world’s to be openly hostile or outright useless to their own citizens in a pinch during times of peace.