The article is devoted to the communicative and pragmatic features of diplomatic discourse from the point of view of its institutional nature. Diplomatic discourse is viewed as a unity of linguistic, cognitive and communicative aspects. Another factor of the diplomatic discourse is the linguistic personality of the diplomat, which determines the success of all communication. The categories of politeness and manipulation are noted as integral components of diplomatic discourse. The article examines in detail the tactics used in diplomatic discourse and their influence on the choice of a particular pragmatic phenomenon: communicative, interactive, perceptual. The article defines the parameters of diplomatic discourse as institutional and reveals its basic system-forming characteristics. In recent years, scholars have been actively exploring and describing discourse using different approaches. The reference to diplomatic discourse and its linguo-pragmatic categories in the article is carried out from the position: pragmalinguistics, discourse linguistics, communication theory.