Costs paid to rent embassies abroad revealed

Did you know that Cyprus has a diplomatic office in Tokyo? And that its rental cost for 2023 is budgeted at €240,000?

Perhaps the foreign ministry’s rental costs in New York can be expected to be high – but at €550,000 for 2023 it’s still up about €100,000 compared to 2020 (€454,920).

Details of the foreign ministry’s upcoming €103m budget were presented to parliament this week, with the rents of the Republic’s various missions provided after Akel’s Yiorgos Loukaides requested the information.

The taxpayer is also set to hand over an extra €120,000 for the Republic’s rental costs for its mission in Russia, compared to 2020, when it was €356,249 but has since gone all the way to €478,300 for 2023.

Some rents have been trimmed, however, with the Paris mission lowering its rental costs from €200,000 in 2021 to €120,000 for 2023.

But the New Delhi office’s costs have risen from €194,823 in 2020 to €229,997.

The overall amount budgeted by the foreign ministry for rental costs has risen from €3.7m in 2020 to almost €5m for 2023.

During the debate on the foreign ministry’s budget this week, MPs also heard that the government also gives €15.6m towards the UN peacekeeping force.

Other notable rental budgets for missions abroad include Cairo’s €85,000, Geneva’s €215,000, Rome’s €140,000, Tel Aviv & Ramallah’s €225,000 and Havana’s €44,000.