Foreign relations of Latvia Foreign Affairs, Latvia maintains embassies in Argentina, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Canada, the People's Republic of China, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Sweden, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Uzbekistan. It also operates missions to the United Nations in New York City and Geneva, to the European Union, the Chemical Weapons Nonproliferation Organization, the OSCE, NATO, World Trade Organization, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Latvia has a Consulate General in Russia; Consulates in Belarus and Russia; Honorary
Languages of Estonia residing in the coastal areas and islands of what is now western and northern Estonia. The beginning of the continuous settlement of Estonian Swedes in these areas (known as "Aiboland") dates back to the 13th and 14th centuries, when their Swedish-speaking ancestors arrived in Estonia from what is now Sweden and Finland. Almost all of Estonia's Swedish-speaking minority fled to Sweden during World War II, and only the descendants of a few individuals who opted to stay are permanently resident in Estonia today. The Estonian Sign Language (ESL, ) is the national sign language of Estonia. In 1998 there were