Australian Foreign Ministry - Makati City, Philippines

Diplomatic relations between states can be traced back to antiquity. But is was not until the 15th century that Italian city states created permanent representations as one of the essential fundaments of modern diplomacy. At the Viennese Congress (1815) and by virtue of the Aachen Protocol (1818) a uniform classification of diplomats was established, which was confirmed by the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations (1961). In 1963 consular affairs too were regulated uniformly by the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations.