Sweden has a moderately sized diplomatic network of 79 embassies and 13 consulates general, supplemented by honorary consulates, cultural centres and trade missions that are operated separately. Of note Sweden was the first Western country to have an embassy in Pyongyang. The embassy in Pyongyang continues to provide limited consular services to citizens of several Western countries without a presence in North Korea and acts as the consular protecting power of the United States since 1995.
In January 2010, the Swedish Foreign Ministry announced that its embassies in Bratislava, Dakar, Dublin, Ljubljana, Luxembourg and Sofia would be closed down, while existing section offices in Pristina, Tbilisi, Chisinau, Tirana, Bamako, Ouagadougou, Monrovia, Kigali, La Paz and Phnom Penh would be upgraded to embassies.
In December 2010, it was announced by the Swedish Foreign Ministry that an additional five embassies would close down; the embassies affected are the ones in Brussels, Belgium, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Hanoi, Vietnam, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Luanda, Angola.
In August 2011, an agreement between the Social Democrats and the current cabinet of Sweden was announced, with the purpouse of keeping the Swedish embassies of Argentina, Vietnam, Malaysia and Angola.
In August 30 2012, Sweden closed its embassy in Minsk. Estonian Embassy at Minsk will represent Swedish interests in Belarus.
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