Russia to write off more African debt

Russia planned to write off 700 million U.S. dollars in debt owed by African countries, a special Africa envoy of the Russian president said on Friday.

"As a rule, debt is written off within the framework of efforts by the international community for the least developed countries with the most debt," Alexei Vasiliev was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Russia has so far written off 11.3 billion dollars of African debt, Vasiliev said.

Among the events under the Russian presidency of the Group of Eight major economic powers this year, Moscow hosted the Africa Partnership Forum, which ended on Friday.

The envoy said Russia had boosted its ties with the African continent, and so far this year President Vladimir Putin has visited Egypt, Algeria, South Africa and Morocco.

Source: Xinhua