AFP: Iraq hopes for Russian debt deal by end of 2007
Iraq hopes to reach a deal that will cancel 90 percent of its 13-billion-dollar (9.2-billion-euro) debt to Russia by the end of the year, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said Friday.”We hope to sign an agreement by the end of the year” to cancel most of Baghdad’s Soviet-era debt to Moscow, Zebari said at the end of a three-day visit to Russia.
Moscow has already told the Paris Club, a group of financial officials from the world’s richest countries, it will write off 80 percent of Iraq’s debt, “though the Russians have told us it could reach 90 percent,” Zebari said.
The minister said the write-off would not give Russia an advantage as an investor in Iraq, particularly in its lucrative oil industry.
This is extraordinary…. I don’t like this, specially considering how Putin is… I don’t think Russia is not going to ask for anything in exchange. Specially considering the investments Russian companies had prior to US-led intervention in this country…
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Irak cree que Rusia le condonará casi el 90% de la deuda, según el Ministro de Exteriores iraquí Hoshyar Zebari, lo que ha sido ratificado por un anuncio realizado por Moscú al Club de París. Pero lo extraordinario es que Moscú no ha exigido ninguna ventaja como inversor en Irak, ni siquiera en la industria del petróleo.
Lo que, al menos a mí, me parece raro: Rusia era uno de los países que más inversiones tenían en Iraq antes de la intervención liderada por EEUU. Por tanto, si no le exije obligaciones en relación a las inversiones en el país, ¿qué le está exigiendo a cambio? ¿O qué le va a exigir en el futuro? Yo no veo a Putin dejando que se le escape una oportunidad como ésta…
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