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The home of the head of mission while in the country of his or her accreditation when distinct, as is now commonly the case, from the chancery or embassy (sense 1); it might be anything from a hotel room to a mansion. Sometimes described as the ‘private residence’, it was expressly included within the definition of the ‘premises of the mission’ in the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961) and is entitled to exactly the same inviolability and protection as the chancery or embassy proper. The physical separation of the residence from the chancery can have advantages for diplomacy. When the US Army Attaché in Paris, Major General Vernon A. Walters, was instructed by the White House in 1970 to make secret contact with the Chinese Ambassador, he decided, according to his memoirs, ‘that the way to do this was to go and see him at the residence in the Neuilly suburban district of Paris, rather than to attempt to go to the Chinese chancery downtown. This would draw a lot of attention’. See also diplomatic premises; hôtel de l\'ambassadeur. |
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