Renowned Croatian and Yugoslav diplomat Budimir Lončar has passed away at the age of 101, Croatian media reported tonight.
According to the Zadar Antena portal, Lončar was found deceased this afternoon in Prek on the island of Ugljan, where he was born. Eyewitnesses, according to the portal, immediately notified the ambulance and police.
The news of his death was confirmed on social media by Croatian historian Tvrtko Jakovina.
“Budimir Lončar, diplomat, partisan, statesman of the world, my friend, passed away today in Prek, the place where he was born on April 1, 1924,” Jakovina wrote, who is also the author of the biography “Budimir Lončar: From Prek to the Pinnacle of the World.”
Lončar was a Yugoslav and Croatian diplomat with a highly successful career. He is widely remembered as the last Minister of Foreign Affairs of the SFRY and as the special envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General for the Non-Aligned Movement. He also served as an advisor to two Croatian presidents, Stjepan Mesić and Ivo Josipović.
