Foreign ministry asks for €138m budget for next year

The foreign ministry on Friday asked parliament to approve a budget for next year amounting to €137.75 million, with Minister Constantinos Kombos attending the day’s House finance committee meeting to justify the expense. He said that the amount constitutes an increase of €5.3m, or four per cent, compared to this year, and an increase of €34.9m, or 34 per cent, since 2023, when the incumbent government took office. “This increase has enabled the ministry to hire 57 new diplomats, resulting in the number of embassies staffed by just a single diplomat, which was 34 in 2023, having been reduced to 25,” he said. On this front, he added that another 15 diplomats are expected to be hired in due course, thus further reducing the number of Cypriot diplomatic missions which are staffed by only one diplomat. He said that of the planned budget, €118.47m constitutes “recurrent expenditure”, while the remaining €19.27m accounts for “development expenditure”, with the former column including the Republic of Cyprus €18m contribution to the United Nations peacekeeping force in Cyprus (Unficyp). Later, he explained to the Cyprus Mail that “development expenditure” includes Cyprus’ contributions to international organisations for which it is considered a “donor state”, such as the World Health Organisation and the UN international children’s emergency fund (Unicef), where donations are made in line with a country’s gross domestic product. Additionally, he said, the expenditures include humanitarian development funding through other means, such as Cyprus Aid and other bilateral mechanisms, as well as property purchases for Cypriot diplomatic missions abroad.