Azerbaijan, Baku, 5 March / corr. Trend I. Khalilova/ The governments of Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan signed an inter-government agreement on the adjustment of debt and financial demands on 5 March in Baku. The signing ceremony was held during the visit of Khidyr Saparaliyev, the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkmenistan to Azerbaijan. The debt was created in 1991-1992 as a result of the purchase of Turkmen gas.
According to the agreement, Azerbaijan will pay $44.8mln worth of debt to Turkmenistan. According to the Cabinet Ministers of Azerbaijan, the debt will be paid in cash at the end of 2008 as at present it is impossible to pay back the debt by goods. However, earlier official Baku claimed the debt to be $18mln for the purchase of Turkmen gas while Turkmenistan claimed it was $56mln.
The Turkmenistan government plans to spend the resources on the purchase of computer and multimedia equipment within the reforms in education.