The Latvian diplomatic service in exile was the only governmental body of the Republic of Latvia which continued its activities during the Nazi and Soviet occupation of Latvia during 1940–1991. Latvian diplomats who were stationed in embassies and consulates at the moment of the occupation in 1940, refused to recognize the occupation and return to Soviet Latvia. They continued to formally represent the interests of Latvia in countries that did not recognize the Soviet annexation. After the restoration of Latvian independence in 1991, the diplomats started reporting to the restored Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Background Latvia was occupied on June 17, 1940, by Red Army troops and officially annexed to the Soviet Union on August 5, 1940 in the form of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic. One month before the occupation, on 17 May 1940 the Cabinet of Ministers granted extraordinary powers to Kārlis Zariņš, Latvia’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom. Mr. Zariņš was authorised to defend Latvia’s interests, supervise the work of Latvia’s representations abroad and handle their finances and property. This created a legal basis for the functioning of the diplomatic service in the absence of a legal government in Latvia. The United States never recognized the forcible and illegal annexation of the Baltic States in conformity with the principles of the Stimson Doctrine (US Under Secretary of State Sumner Welles’s Declaration of July 23, 1940), and more than 50 countries followed this position. The work of the diplomatic service was financed from Latvian gold reserves in foreign banks. Activity During the occupation, Latvian diplomatic missions continued their work in Argentina, Brazil, Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, West Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Latvian diplomatic service regularly issued official statements regarding the illegality of the Soviet occupation and annexation of Latvia as well as regarding Latvia’s right to restore its national independence. It was also protecting the interests of Latvian citizens abroad and the Latvian property abroad. In 1947 a joint communication on the occupation of Baltic states to the UN was sent by the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian diplomats abroad. The Baltic Appeal to the United Nations (now "Baltic Association to the United Nations") was formed in 1966. On March 26, 1949, the US State Department issued a circular stating that the Baltic states were still independent nations with their own diplomatic representatives. In 1969, the