Foreign Relations of The Holy See - Bilateral Relations

Bilateral Relations

Further information: List of diplomatic missions of the Holy See and List of heads of the diplomatic missions of the Holy See

The Holy See, as a non-state sovereign entity and full subject of international law, started establishing diplomatic relations with sovereign states in the 15th century. It had the territory of the States of the Church under its direct sovereign rule since centuries before that time. Currently it has the territory of the State of the Vatican City under its direct sovereign rule. In the period of 1870-1929 between the annexation of Rome by the Kingdom of Italy and the ratification of the Lateran Treaty establishing the current Vatican City State, the Holy See was devoid of territory. In this period some states suspended their diplomatic relations, but others retained them (or established such relations for the first time or reestablished them after a break), so that the number of states that did have diplomatic relations with the Holy See almost doubled (from 16 to 27) in the period between 1871 and 1929.

The Holy See currently has diplomatic relations with 179 sovereign states (including the partially internationally recognized Republic of China) and in addition with the sovereign entity Order of Malta and the supranational union European Union.

The Holy See also has established official non-diplomatic relations "of special nature" with the Palestine Liberation Organization. By agreement with the government of Vietnam, it has a non-resident papal representative to that country. It has official formal contacts, without establishing diplomatic relations, with: Afghanistan, Brunei, Somalia, Oman, and Saudi Arabia.

The Holy See additionally maintains some apostolic delegates to local Catholic Church communities and such delegates are not accredited to the governments of the respective states and work only in unofficial non-diplomatic capacity. The regions and states where such non-diplomatic delegates operate are: Brunei, Comoros, Laos, Mauritania, Myanmar, Somalia, Vietnam, Jerusalem and the Palestinian territories (Palestine), Pacific Ocean (Tuvalu, dependent territories), Arabian Peninsula (Oman, foreigners in Saudi Arabia), Antilles (dependent territories), apostolic delegate to Kosovo (Republic of Kosovo) and the apostolic prefecture of Western Sahara (Sahrawi Republic)

The Holy See has no relations of any kind with the following states:

• Kingdom of Bhutan (see Roman Catholicism in Bhutan)
• Republic of the Maldives (see Christianity in the Maldives)
• Peoples Republic of China (see Roman Catholicism in China)
• Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (see Roman Catholicism in North Korea)
• and states with limited recognition.

The Holy See maintains 180 permanent diplomatic missions abroad, of which 73 are non-residential, so that it has in all 106 concrete missions, some of which are accredited not only to the country in which they are situated, but also to one or more other countries or international organizations.

The Holy See is the only European subject of international law to have diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan), although informal talks between the Holy See and the government of the People's Republic of China on the reestablishment of diplomatic relations have been reported.

During the pontificate of Pope Benedict XVI relations were established Montenegro (2006), the United Arab Emirates (2007), Botswana (2008), the Russian Federation (2009), Malaysia (2011) and South Sudan (2013). "Relations of a special nature" had previously been in place with Russia similar to those that continue to exist with the Palestinian Liberation Organization.