Kravchuk, Yeltsin meet about debt

WASHINGTON - Ukrainian President Leonid Kravchuk was to head for Moscow and a meeting with Russian leader Boris Yeltsin on January 15 to resolve differences that have held up new Western credit for the two countries because they cannot agree on repayment of debt owed by the former Soviet Union to the West.

The Paris Club, a group of major industrialized creditor nations, has postponed a meeting that was scheduled for this weekend because of the dispute between Ukraine and Russia, stated a Washington Post report. The Paris Club accord would have postponed some of the debt payments for five to 10 years.

The two countries had agreed on November 24 that Russia would temporarily represent the entire Soviet debt of $70 billion, including the 16.37 percent Ukraine had assumed previously. The agreement was concluded to make Western credit more readily available. The two republics had also agreed to finalize debt repayment schedules and to divide the assets of the former Soviet Union by December 31. On that day Ukraine renounced the agreement because Russia never provided a list of the former Soviet property abroad that is to be divided up, reported Reuters.

The amount of the debt that would be owed by the end of 1993 now stands at over $18 billion dollars - $15 billion in 1993 payments and $3-4 billion in arrears payments from 1992. The proposed Paris Club rescheduling would reduce the amount owed to the West next year to a more manageable $2.75 billion.

The two presidents are also scheduled to discuss issues concerning Russian oil sales and its transport to Ukraine and other countries.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 17, 1993, No. 3, Vol. LXI

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