WASHINGTON — Finally, after five months behind a dark door with no name on the seventh floor of an old downtown office building, the Embassy of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan is spelled out in gold plastic letters.
The embassy is four rooms and a staff of four. "This is perhaps the smallest embassy, but it's enough for us," said Ambassador Roza Otunbayeva, seated before her new country's red flag, whose golden center design symbolizes the Kyrgyz "window to the world."
So far, according to the U.S. State Department's Office of Foreign Missions, about half of the 20 new nations have joined the ranks of the 160 accredited ambassadors or charges d'affaires.
The newcomer nations are not prominently situated in stately townhouses and spacious mansions along exclusive Embassy Row.
But for these independent, struggling countries, having even a tiny foothold in Washington--above all other world capitals--is a top priority for entering and becoming equal partners in the international community.
"Our independence is very fragile. To save and protect it, it is important to be in Washington," said Otunbayeva, who served as Kyrgyzstan's deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs before coming here. "The weight of independence is heavy because of our economic difficulties. We are a very sick organism. We have to perform surgery, change our heart.
"People don't know anything about my republic (the predominantly Muslim former Soviet Kirghizia). They don't know how to spell it. They don't know it exists in the world. I have to make our voice heard. It is a lot of work, and I have just two hands. The Russian Embassy has several hundred."
The fledgling embassies typically occupy small, sparsely furnished quarters in nondescript downtown buildings. Whether it is the former Yugoslav republic of Slovenia or the former Soviet republic of Belarus, they have few rooms, few staff members and few handmade mementos of their homeland. Their diplomats do double, even triple, duty.
Many embassies are temporarily camped out in these closet-size quarters until they can afford structures befitting their sovereign status. They have the prerequisite fax, computer and copy machine, but they also often have donated furniture and still-unpacked boxes of books and papers.
Croatia is an example of upward mobility. Early this year, its small staff plans to move from an office building into a brick house that belonged to the Austrian Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue's Embassy Row.
