Russia forgives 90% of Cuba's total Soviet-era debt

• DNUM_BAZBCZCABD 12:17

Mexico's state news agency NOTIMEX on December 9 quoted diplomatic sources as saying that last October, Russia and Cuba secretly signed a bilateral agreement through which Moscow forgave Havana 90% of its total debt of up to 32 billion USD from the former Soviet era.

This move is seen as paving the way for new investment capital into the island nation and ending the "back and forth" process over the debt that has lasted for the past 20 years.

Under the terms of the agreement, the remaining debt of $3.2 billion will be paid by Havana over the next 10 years, in exchange for Moscow forgiving more than $20 billion plus past interest.

However, this agreement still has to wait for the Russian Parliament to approve it and the form in which Cuba will pay this debt is still a big question, the two sides need to continue sitting at the negotiating table.

The decision to cancel a large part of Cuba's debt did not please the Paris Club member countries (including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US) because Russia had automatically "evaded" the regulations that the organization had previously set for the case of Cuba.

Before Russia, China, Japan and Mexico also took similar actions against Cuba.

According to Vietnam+