Our Imperial Majesty hereby reiterates that the maintaining of diplomatic relations shall be the primary function of the Foreign Office. However, a secondary priority of the Foreign Office when undertaking this function shall be the international representation and promotion of the national interests of the Empire.
With that in mind, we hereby announce the following guidelines, by which the Chief Ambassador and all other Austenasian ambassadors and diplomats shall follow (excepting extraordinary or emergency circumstances).
The Empire of Austenasia is an independent sovereign state. It therefore has a responsibility to extend recognition as likewise only to such entities truly deserving of such recognition, to ensure that the dignity and professionalism of the Empire is not diminished by the extending of recognition to entities not deserving of such.
The Empire of Austenasia shall only recognise as sovereign states those entities which have a stable government exercising authority over the permanent population (which is aware of, consents to, and abides by said governance) of a claimed and controlled area of land. To ensure that governments are stable, we recommend that recognition is not granted to any state younger than eight months, or which has had a change of government system in the last six months.
We declare as an official stance and policy of the Austenasian Government that the Emperor of Austenasia is, through the principle of translatio imperii, the successor in dignity to the Western Roman Emperors, and as such holds rightful precedence over all other rulers of the western world. Our position as Imperator Occidentis has been held since 4 June 2011, when we were recognised by His Royal and Imperial Majesty the then German Emperor as holding full Imperial dignity. It is in the national interest of the Empire of Austenasia that no other claimants to imperial dignity receive recognition as legitimate Emperors where possible, in order to preserve the illustrious status of said title and the current international standing of Austenasia.
Although at present only ourselves and the Eastern Emperor (currently Akihito of Japan) can legitimately extend the imperial dignity to others (by recognising as Emperor a sovereign monarch who claims said title), we hereby announce the following guidelines, to be followed in an attempt to ensure the unique position as Western Emperor which the Austenasian Monarch currently holds.
We recommend that no Austenasian ambassador or diplomat refers to a currently existing state (other than the Empire of Austenasia) as an “Empire”, unless it would display a gross lack of diplomatic etiquette not to do so. Under no circumstances shall an Austenasian ambassador or diplomat address or refer to any person other than ourselves and His Imperial Majesty the Eastern Emperor as “Emperor”, “Empress”, “Augustus” (when in the context of a title, office, rank, style, position or honorific, not as a given name), or “Augusta” without our explicit consent and approval or without prior issuing a statement unambiguously stating that addressing or referring to the respective person in such a manner does not constitute any form of recognition by the Empire or Emperor of Austenasia of said person holding any form of imperial dignity. This also applies to the words “Imperator” and “Imperatrix”, if the claimant asserts that they are translated into English as “Emperor” and “Empress” respectively, and/or claims them as imperial titles.