Argentina had closed its consulate in Boston because of budget cuts. And Brazil had closed its consulate in Hamburg, Germany, for the same reason. So the two governments -- which lead the Mercosur trade agreement of South American countries -- recently decided to invite one another to share the consular facilities where they no longer had a diplomatic presence.

''We're not talking about a joint diplomatic mission, but of two consulates within the same facilities,'' Brazil's ambassador to Washington told. ``It's a pilot project. If it goes well, we will try to take advantage of similar opportunities elsewhere.''

Under the plan, the consulates will have the two countries' flags and will probably share a waiting room, security personnel and maybe some employees. They will also share rental and insurance costs, officials from the two countries say.

A consulate in a city like Boston costs about $450,000 a year, which means the two countries could now split the bill, they say. Abdenur and Bordón are planning to visit the Brazilian Consulate in Boston this week to do the math. Then they will wait for the State Department to OK their request.

''They reacted with much sympathy,'' Argentina's Ambassador Bordón said. ``It was something new to them.''


ADDITIONAL PLANS
In addition, the two countries are exploring ways of sharing cultural events -- starting with a Brazilian-Argentine film festival -- in the United States. And Brazil, which holds a two-year seat at the United Nations Security Council, has already invited Argentina to post a senior diplomat at its U.N. mission as part of a deal whereby Argentina will reciprocate when it occupies a U.N. Security Council seat.

Conclusion? Creating multinational consular buildings is a great idea, which the other countries could emulate. It not only helps cut costs but, more important, allows countries to expand their diplomatic and commercial reach abroad.

Take a small but ambitious country like Costa Rica, which has 124 consulates across the world. Granted, many of them are honorary consulates, which are relatively inexpensive, but many are full-fledged diplomatic missions, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Or take poverty-stricken countries such as Nicaragua and Guyana, which, according to their websites, have respectively 30 and 33 diplomatic missions abroad.

In much of Europe and Asia, they don't have any diplomatic presence.

Wouldn't it make sense for Central American and Caribbean nations to pool their resources and open joint diplomatic missions abroad so as to expand their diplomatic and export-promotion reach? Or for the United States or bigger Latin American countries, which often have to close their cultural centers abroad for lack of funding, to open bi-national or tri-national cultural facilities?


REGIONAL SUMMITS
In addition, it would make sense for countries to pool their resources at their various regional summits, which most often produce inconsequential final declarations that cost taxpayers millions of dollars in diplomats' travel expenses.

While European summits generally produce four- or five-point final declarations, the recent 54-nation Latin American-European summit that took place in Guadalajara, Mexico, produced a 104-point final declaration on virtually every issue on the world agenda.

It demanded 17 international negotiating meetings in Europe and Latin America. Diplomats spent days at five-star hotels arguing over things such as whether to use the word ''we welcome'' or ''we acknowledge'' a particular United Nations initiative.

And while the 25-member European Union usually spoke through one diplomat representing all EU members, there were 33 Latin American and Caribbean diplomats arguing their respective countries' points of view.

There are many things the United States and Latin American countries could do to make their diplomacy more efficient. Multinational diplomatic missions would be a great start.