Australia has agreed to suspend debt repayments this year for countries hit by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami in December, the government said Friday. The government of Prime Minister John Howard already has pledged more than $789 million in post-tsunami aid, with most of it going to its northern neighbor Indonesia, which bore the brunt of the Dec. 26 earthquake - measured at magnitude 9 - and the killer wave it spawned.
In the immediate aftermath of the disaster, Canberra said debt relief was not the right way to offer assistance and instead offered its biggest foreign aid package ever in the form of low-interest loans and grants. Indonesia was due to repay about $250 million to Australia in 2005, said Richard Forbes, a spokesman for Trade Minister Mark Vaile. Figures for other tsunami-struck countries were not immediately available. The decision to suspend repayments was taken after a meeting of the Paris Club group of creditor nations. ``Australia is pleased that the debt moratorium will be in addition to the direct assistance already committed by Paris Club members,'' Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Trade Minister Mark Vaile said in a joint statement. The moratorium will let countries concentrate on reconstruction, the ministers said. |