Duty of Care: Consular Diplomacy Response of Baltic and Nordic Countries to COVID-19

Abstract

Declaring the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 left thousands of travellers stranded, propelling consular work to the forefront, and testing governments’ capacity to aid their nationals abroad. While all consular departments provided assistance and duty of care (DoC) through information and guidance, some were reactive while others were proactive, and some were willing to make exceptions and engage in pastoral care. Analysis of the Baltic and Nordic countries’ reactions to the initial outbreak of COVID-19 shows us how DoC diverged in practice, and to note the transition of consular affairs into consular diplomacy and its interplay with facets of digital, citizen-centric and diaspora diplomacy. The conclusion is that all eight countries exceeded normal consular practice and exhibited some level of pastoral DoC, with Latvia and Lithuania exhibiting high levels of pastoral care. In parallel, Lithuania and Denmark, in their responses, effectively incorporated innovative elements of digital and diaspora diplomacy.