Russia, Mongolia settle Mongolian debts – Putin

MOSCOW, December 14 (Itar-Tass) -- An intergovernmental agreement has settled Mongolian debts to Russia, which formed in the Soviet period, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said after Tuesday negotiations with his Mongolian counterpart.

The debts were settled “on terms most preferential for Mongolian friends,” he remarked.

Russia wrote off 97.8% of the Mongolian debt of $172 million, Deputy Prime Minister, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said. He said that Mongolia would pay the remaining debt of $3.8 million in one transfer.

Talks between Prime Ministers Vladimir Putin of Russia and Sukhbaatar Batbold of Mongolia on Tuesday yielded nine Russian-Mongolian cooperation documents, including an agreement on settling Mongolia’s financial liabilities to Russia and an agreement on principal conditions to create a joint company for the prospecting, production and treatment of uranium ore.