Costa Rica country brief - bilateral fact sheet

Bilateral relations

Australia and Costa Rica established diplomatic relations in 1974. Australia's Ambassador in Mexico City holds non-resident accreditation to Costa Rica. Australia has an Honorary Consul in San José.

Costa Rica first opened a consular office in Sydney in 1884, opening an embassy in Canberra in 2017.

Australia and Costa Rica cooperate multilaterally in the United Nations and its organisations and at the World Trade Organization (WTO) - including through the Cairns Group of agricultural fair-trading countries.

Costa Rica is a member of the Central American Integration System (SICA), Organization of American States (OAS), Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation (FEALAC), Association of Caribbean States (ACS), Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, and other regional organisations.

Costa Rica acceded to the OECD in 2021.

Further economic and trade information can be found in our Costa Rica trade/economic fact sheet [PDF 194 KB].

Fast Facts

Costa Rican visitors to Australia (2021-22 Dept of Home Affairs) #: 97
Australian visitors to Costa Rica primary destination (2021-2022 Dept of Home Affairs) #: 347
Resident Australian population born in Costa Rica (2021 Census): 640
Australian residents of Costa Rican descent (2021 Census): 530
Costa Rican students in Australia (2023 Dept of Education)*: 57

# This financial year data is owned by Home Affairs. It provides quarterly updates to this data on its website

* This Jan-Sep data is owned by the Department of Education. It provides updates to these numbers on its website

High level engagement

2023 September – Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong met Minister for Foreign Affairs Arnoldo Andre Tinoco at UNGA in New York
2022 June – Assistant Minister for Trade Tim Ayres met Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Worship, Tovar Rivera at the OECD Ministerial Council Meeting in Paris
2022 May – Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs Tim Watts met Costa Rica's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Worship, Arnoldo Tinoco at the Organization for American States (OAS) in Lima