PORTLAND — Sweden’s diplomatic outpost in Portland will close today because of reported cost-cutting measures, forcing Swedes to offices out of state for their needs.

Closure of one of Oregon’s oldest honorary consulates could be seen as a setback to international diversity and the state’s global business presence. Some say it’s an ominous sign for the two-dozen foreign representative offices that process election ballots, notarize documents, promote trade and rescue citizens in medical or legal emergencies.

But it bucks a trend of expansion in the Oregon Consular Corps, which has added eight members in the past 10 years, including Canada and Lithuania.

“We’ve protested to no avail,” said Honorary Vice Consul Ross Fogelquist, a 70-year-old retired German-language teacher of Swedish descent who operates the outpost. “I’ve devoted the last 40 years trying to maintain a high Swedish profile here, so it’s kind of a bitter pill.”

The Royal Swedish Consulate is housed in a 1940 log house on Southwest Oleson Road. Brightly painted clogs, cups and cabinets nestle among Scandinavian antiques that crowd the oak floors of the home. Fogelquist works without pay, puttering around this living altar to the old country, handling travel documents and serving Swedish coffee.

The four other Scandinavian countries — Denmark, Finland, Norway, even remote Iceland — have honorary consulates.

The consulate opened in 1938, or perhaps before, when many Swedish-flagged ships called on Portland. Sweden’s consulate has helped renew about 100 passports a year, as well as driver’s licenses, and served as an election polling place for Swedish voters.

Mark Johnson — like Fogel-quist, a third-generation Swede who worked for free — retired this year as honorary consul after promoting business ties between Sweden and Oregon. His departure created an opportunity for Sweden’s Foreign Ministry to cut expenses, although he argues that the operation cost hardly anything, subsisting largely on passport-renewal fees. He sees Sweden’s current conservative administration behind the move.

Sweden’s West Coast consul general, Nina Ersman, based in Los Angeles, said new passports embedded with security chips require special equipment and authority to issue that can only be done in the consul general’s office in Los Angeles or New York.