Diplomatic mission

The US Embassy in Athens and its Consular Section, the US Consulate General in Thessaloniki, and all US government offices in Greece will be closed on Monday in observance of Columbus Day/Indigenous Peoples' Day. 

A meeting of representatives from the Ministry of Tourism and foreign embassies was held last Friday at the ministry to exchange ideas on the most common issues faced by foreign visitors.

The discussion focused on ways to address these issues more effectively through collaboration between the relevant Greek authorities and foreign diplomatic and consular missions in Greece.

Greece's embassy in London has clocked up £1.6 million in unpaid congestion charge fees, new figures have shown.

Statistics published by Transport for London (TfL) revealed that the Greek embassy ranks 24th in the list of embassies owing the most in unpaid charges in the British capital and sixth among the European Union countries.

The Russian Embassy in Cyprus will soon start providing consular services in the Turkish-occupied north of the divided island, according to a telegram from the Russian state news agency TASS citing an embassy spokesperson. 

Slovenia has opened a consulate in Naples, south Italy, to promote the development of economic, cultural and science relations between the two neighbouring countries.

The new consulate, headed by Jacopo Fronzoni as honorary consul, was launched on 13 January, the Foreign Ministry announced on Twitter.

According to the US Embassy, Russia has expelled Deputy Chief of the U.S. diplomatic mission, Bartle B. Gorman.
The reason for this decision is not known yet.

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara has said it maintains compliance with Article 41 of the Vienna Convention that stipulates that the diplomatic principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of the guest state amid President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's call for the expulsion of 10 ambassadors who issued a statement on the Osman Kavala case last week. 

The tension between the consulate general of France in Istanbul and the owners of a cafe serving inside the consulate building has flared up upon the diplomatic mission's forced eviction decision on them, according to daily Milliyet.

Romania's Foreign Ministry (MAE) has reported that a Romanian national, a sailor on a ship in the port of Vassilikos, Cyprus, has been detained by the Cypriot authorities. According to a MAE press statement, the Romanian Embassy in Nicosia was notified on Tuesday about this fact.

Diplomatic missions of 12 states have suspended work in North Korea and all foreign personnel of international humanitarian organizations have left the country due to the challenging situation, namely over the lack of goods and medicine, the Russian Embassy in Pyongyang wrote on its Facebook page.