Russia has written off $160 million debt owed to it by Ethiopia, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced.
Press secretary of the Ethiopian Prime Minister Office on Thursday in a statement said the president’s announcement was made at the first-ever Russia-Africa Summit opened in the Russian resort city of Sochi.
The president also announced cancellation of a total of over $20 billion debt his country had provided to African countries during the Soviet era.
Russian Ambassador to Ethiopia Michael Afanasiev last week said Russia would write off the remaining $160m debt owed to it by Ethiopia.
In 2005, Russia cancelled just over $1.1bn owed to it by the Horn of Africa nation.
Trade between Ethiopia and Russia had recently improved, although it is not as big as it was in the 1980s, Afanasiev told fin24.
In the 1980s, Soviet exports to Ethiopia stood at more than $300m, about 10 times more than total imports and exports between the two nations in 2006, trade sources say.
Ethiopia mainly exports flowers and coffee to Russia, which sells fuel, fuel products, vehicles and spare parts to Ethiopia.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and other nine leaders in Africa are attending the first ever Russia–Africa Summit in the Russian resort city of Sochi.
MG/abj/APA