The U.S. State Department has notified Congress that it intends to close five diplomatic missions abroad, according to sources familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, Reuters reported on Tuesday, as noted by Agerpres.
In a notification sent to congressional committees late last week, the State Department stated that it intends to close its missions in St. George’s (Grenada), Nagoya (Japan), Medan (Indonesia), Douala (Cameroon), and Winnipeg (Canada).
The U.S. mission in St. George’s, Grenada, is an embassy. The posts in Medan, Winnipeg, and Nagoya are consulates, while the post in Douala is an “embassy annex.” Consulates and annexes typically represent U.S. interests in regions outside the capital of a foreign country, where the U.S. embassy is usually located.
These measures, which had not been previously reported, represent a rare instance of the U.S. closing multiple foreign missions—a reduction not tied to any specific geopolitical event.
Early last year, during the first months of the Donald Trump administration, the State Department began preparations to close nearly 12 foreign missions, Reuters and other news agencies reported at the time, as part of a broader effort by the Republican president to reshape the U.S. bureaucracy so that it would be fully aligned with his “America First” agenda.
The White House Office of Management and Budget advocated for an even more ambitious closure program, targeting up to 30 foreign missions. Some administration officials have stated privately that certain smaller foreign missions are nonessential and not cost-effective.
Democrats and former foreign policy and national security officials argue that reducing the U.S. diplomatic footprint, combined with the elimination of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—which has provided billions of dollars in aid globally—risks undermining American leadership while leaving a dangerous vacuum that adversaries such as China and Russia could fill.
Although the State Department underwent a major bureaucratic overhaul last year, “cutting dozens of offices and hundreds of employees,” no foreign missions were closed.
When asked to comment, the State Department issued a statement in which it did not confirm the closures but noted that it is focused on ensuring that the U.S. diplomatic footprint is effective. The Department added that it is committed to following the procedures for notifying Congress.
source – AGERPRES
