Itar-Tass
October 13, 2004

Tokyo: The exact amount of the Iraqi debt to Russia has not been established so far, which makes it impossible to adopt any resolutions on writing it off, Sergei Kirpichenko, ambassador at large of the Russian Foreign Ministry, told Itar-Tass on Wednesday. He is attending an international conference on the restoration of Iraq, which is under way in Tokyo.

“The amount will become known, after Russia and Iraq check the Iraqi debt. The sum is going to be rather large, running into billions of dollars,” the Russian diplomat said. Previously Russian officials mentioned some eight billion dollars. According to Kirpichenko, it is difficult to say when the debt will be checked. He said Russia could make “some reasonable concessions” on the restructuring of the Iraqi debt, but, “when making a decision on the issue, we shall take into consideration not only a difficult economic situation of Iraq, but also the lawful economic interests of this country, which is quite natural.”

According to Kirpichenko, “the leading companies, primarily LUKOIL, would like to return to Iraq and to cooperate with it in the sphere of oil production on a mutually advantageous basis. They will work for retaining our positions in that country, relying on state support.” Kirpichenko explained there were two reasons for the present non-development of the cooperation.

First, security is very low in Iraq now. Second, new oil fields are not being developed. The thing is that the transitional government of Iraq, which came to power last summer, has no right to sign major contract, whose planned period of work in Iraq exceeds the term in office of the government itself, which expires in January.