DUSHANBE, January 8, 2008, Asia-Plus -- Tajikistan has written off a $12 million Kazakhstan’s debt in exchange for wheat and fuel, according to the Ministry of Finance (MoF).

The source at a MoF said that Kazakhstan would supply $5 million worth of wheat, $4 million worth of diesel fuel and $3 million worth of fuel oil to Tajikistan this year.

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Rashid Gulov, a deputy engineer-in-chief with Barqi Tojik power holding, said that those 12 million dollars were electricity supply arrears that had been formed in 1990s already when Tajikistan had been supplying electrical power to Kazakhstan in the summer season.  Gulov expressed hope that wheat and fuel would arrive in Tajikistan at the beginning of this year.  

We will recall that the debt issue was discussed during a meeting of President Emomali Rahmon with his Kazakh counterpart, President Nurusultan Nazarbayev, at Kazakh resort town of Borovoye on December 19, 2008 on sidelines of an informal CIS summit.