MOSCOW (AFP) — 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.
After meetings on Thursday with Russian Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko and CEO Vagit Alekperov of Russian oil company Lukoil, however, Zebari said that Lukoil's previous work in Iraq would give it a leg-up in the future.
Speaking of Lukoil's 1997 contract to develop Iraq's vast West Qurna-2 oil field -- which it lost when the United States invaded Iraq in 2003 -- Zebari said: "Lukoil accomplished much under this contract and thus will of course have an advantage," news agency Interfax reported.
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