Russia to write off Ethiopia's $160 million debt
The Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Tedros Adhanom, during an interview with Interfax, indicated that Russia has agreed to write off Ethiopia’s $160 million debt.
“During negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week in Moscow, it was agreed that Ethiopia’s $160 million debt will be cancelled. We agreed that these resources will best be used towards the ‘Debts in Exchange for Development’ project in Ethiopia involving Russian companies,” the Prime Minister explained.
According to him, in order to implement the debt cancellation, Addis-Ababa will have to provide Moscow specific proposals for the use of these resources.
“We want to expand trade and economic relations with Russia and we are focusing on how to create these agreements which will help us to increase investments,” Adhanom said.
The Minister noted that Ethiopia is also interested in pursuing military and technical cooperation with Russia.