Photo with illustrative character. Photo source: dreamstime.com
President Donald Trump's administration proposes to close several embassies and consulates that are mainly located in Europe and Africa, according to CNN and Reuters.
Nearly 30 embassies and consulates would be closed in countries in Europe, such as Malta and France, according to internal documents of the State Department seen by CNN.
According to the document, the American embassies in Malta and Luxembourg would be affected, as well as five consulates in France, two in Germany, two in Bosnia and Herzegovina and one in the United Kingdom.
Also, the document proposes to close several diplomatic representations in Africa, including a consulate in South Africa and embassies in the Republic of Congo, the Central Republic and South Sudan, among others.
On the other hand, it is recommended to close a consulate in South Korea and to reduce US diplomatic missions in Somalia and Iraq, as well as “resizing” other diplomatic positions.
The US government emphasizes that the choice of embassies and consulates that could cease to operate was made on the basis of factors such as the volume of work, the state of the facilities or the cost of the contracted employees.
According to CNN, these recommendations come from the assistant of the Secretary for Administration within the State Department.
The closure of some consulates and embassies would be in accordance with the plans of Elon Musk, a close relative of Donald Trump who runs the Doge Department of the US government and has made steps to drastically reduce government spending by closing offices and mass programs and federal employees.
Photo source: dreamstime.com
