Embassies of Washington, Part 9

Some of the world's sovereign states are quite small, and financial resources for diplomacy are not unlimited. Therefore, a number of countries which are small and or extremely poor (like the Democratic Republic of Congo) do not have their own embassy buildings in Washington, but make do with a suite in an office building. An alternative is a moving into a diplomatic building with all your friends, which is what five of the six independent members of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States did. This nice building on New Mexico Avenue houses the embassies of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. The OECS is a tight-knit group, sharing a currency that well predates the euro. Guess which of these smallest countries in the Western Hemisphere decided it needed its own embassy closer to the White House? Here's a hint.

Since we have some extra room for pics today because of OECS cooperation, I've broken the one photo per country rule for India and Iraq. Like many countries, India has multiple buildings in DC, but they haven't built a showpiece reflective of their anticipated 21st Century power yet. There is a lovely statue of Mahatma Gandhi in front of their ancient chancery building on Embassy Row, so I focused the shot on that. I like the elephants at the entrance to their consular wing, so you get a picture of that too.

America has finally exited Iraq, sort of, and I celebrate by posting pics of three of Iraq's buildings in the city. The chancery is way up on Massachusetts Avenue north of Observatory Circle, near my house. The big building in Dupont Circle which I had always thought was their main building is actually their consular wing. And on 16th Street, I recently discovered the representation in the United States of the Kurdistan Regional Government... perhaps a nascent independent state?

Also this week we have Barbados - the seventh-smallest country in the hemisphere and home of the United States's single embassy covering it and the six OECS countries - and France and Panama. The photos are in alphabetical order: Antigua and Barbuda plus four, Barbados, France, India chancery, India consular wing, Iraq chancery, Iraq consular wing, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Panama.