Skopje, 29 September 2022 (MIA) – The Macedonian Diplomatic Union (MDU) welcomes the successful sale of the building on Fifth Avenue in New York owned by former Yugoslavia, as part of the process of succession of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. “We call on the leadership at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Government to immediately reinvest the funds received by the sale, amounting to around 4 million US dollars, by acquiring real estate, i.e., diplomatic apartments in New York. Since the legal regulations provide that these funds be directed into the state budget, we believe that there is a real danger they will be spent inappropriately,” states the press release from the Macedonian Diplomatic Union. According to the MDU, such reinvestment would significantly increase the amount of real estate Macedonia owns abroad, which would at least partially reduce the large expenses covering the rent of Macedonian diplomats abroad. The Union points out that such are the experiences of the countries of former Yugoslavia. The building of the former SFRY’s diplomatic mission in New York, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, was sold for 50 million US dollars. The sellers of the building, one of the oldest New York mansions which was bought by Yugoslavia in 1946, are the five successor states of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia – Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia and Serbia. ad/ba/