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Russia to Write Off a Few Billion Dollars to Old Mate
Russia’s Finance Ministry sets to negotiations to recover one of the biggest foreign debts – the debt of North Korea. The amount is $8 billion and the better part of it will be written off, said Sergey Storchak, deputy finance minister of Russia.
Russia’s Finance Ministry is ready to begin negotiations about the debt of North Korea in December. The talks will start "in the following few weeks," said Deputy Finance Minister Sergey Storchak.
Overall, North Korea owes $8 billion to Russia, Storchak specified referring to data of Vneshekonombank. “But the principal standing of government excludes supplies of commodities,” the official said.
Russia is the assignee of North Korean debt to the former Soviet Union, which opened the respective credit facility far back in mid.-1950’s. In addition to loans, North Korea benefited from preferential energy supplies and deliveries of machinery and food.
Russia will get down to discussing the deal parameters once the payment capacity of North Korea is evaluated. “Writing off will be wide, of course,” Storchak forecasted.
Finance Ministry hopes that by writing off the better part of North Korean debt, Russia will improve the attitude of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which member it hopes to become by 2010.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Dec. 01, 2006
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