Britain and Canada to share foreign embassies

OTTAWA (AFP) - Britain and Canada are to establish joint diplomatic missions and share embassy offices overseas in a bid to save money, the countries' foreign ministers announced jointly in Ottawa on Monday.

The arrangement will see the sharing of consular services in states where one of them does not have an embassy, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird and British Foreign Secretary William Hague told reporters.

For now, it affects only Haiti, where a British diplomat will soon work out of Canada's embassy, and Myanmar, where a Canadian official has already set up an office in the British high commission.

But more locations will be announced later as Canada and Britain are looking to trim their foreign office budgets by more than US$160 million (S$196 million) each, they said.