BELGRADE, May 23 (Hina)- Members of a finance committee consisting of experts from the five successor countries to the former Yugoslavia agreed on further steps to be taken to claim a debt of the former Soviet Union at a meeting in
Belgrade on Thursday. A meeting on this matter is to be held in Moscow in late June or early July.
BELGRADE, May 23 (Hina)- Members of a finance committee consisting
of experts from the five successor countries to the former
Yugoslavia agreed on further steps to be taken to claim a debt of the
former Soviet Union at a meeting in Belgrade on Thursday.
A meeting on this matter is to be held in Moscow in late June or early
July. #L#
Also discussed at today's meeting were foreign currency reserves in
foreign banks as well as the division of gold from World War II.
Yugoslavia's representative Veroljub Dugalic, the host of the
meeting, said that according to data which was not final yet, the
debt of the former Soviet Union to former Yugoslavia totalled
around a billion and a half clearing dollars. The Russian side,
however, claims around 140 million clearing dollars from the former
Yugoslav federation.
Yugoslavia's successor-countries will in the next several days
form a negotiating team, which will meet in Moscow at the end of June
or early July.
Today's meeting also focused on the foreign currency reserves of
the central bank of the former Yugoslavia, which according to data
from May last year amount to US$360 million. Also discussed was gold
from World War II, which is estimated at US$350,000.
The five states will divide everything they agree on in keeping with
the IMF principle from the Agreement on Succession (Annex C), under
which Yugoslavia will be given 38 percent, Croatia 23 percent,
Slovenia 16, Bosnia-Herzegovina 15.5 and Macedonia 7.5 percent of
all assets. The next meeting of experts will be held in Sarajevo.
The question of foreign currency deposited in various foreign banks
remains contentious. There is a huge discrepancy between the
amounts quoted and signed on in the agreement, which total US$645
million, and the assets actually found in the banks, which amount to
around US$56 million. The question arises as to who spent those
funds.
Commenting on this issue, Croatia's representative Zdravko Rogic
reiterated that the real explanation still had not been offered and
that the question remained contentious.
All successor countries demand an explanation from the National
Bank of Yugoslavia on the funds, both those that have ratified the
agreement (Macedonia and Bosnia) and those that are yet to do so
(Slovenia and Croatia).
(hina) sp sb