Russian team due in April

Russia is likely to send a special delegation to Bangladesh in April to settle the repayment of outstanding instalments worth $11.38 billion loan taken for the Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant.

“We have requested Russia to send a special delegation during a Bangladesh-Russia intergovernmental meeting. Russia is likely to send their team in April to settle the issue,” a senior official of the Economic Relations Division told The Business Post.

A three-day Bangladesh-Russia Inter-governmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation was held virtually on March 13-15. ERD Secretary Sharifa Khan led the Bangladesh side, while the head of Federal Agencies for Fisheries Ilya V Shestakov led the Russian team.

“During the meeting, no decision was taken over the issue of Rooppur plant’s outstanding loan,” he also said.

However, Russia proposed to repay their outstanding loans in Ruble or through a third country. Bangladesh did not agree due to currency-exchange risk and some technical problems in repayments of loans, the official said, adding that Bangladesh has so far failed to repay three instalments as SWIFT put sanctions on some Russian banks for the Russian-Ukraine war.

“ERD informed Russia that it is not possible to settle the issue over a virtual meeting. The matter should be discussed in person to reach a better solution. So the ERD has urged us to send a Russian team to Bangladesh,” the official added.

In 2016, Russia confirmed an $11.38 billion loan for the Rooppur nuclear power plant in Bangladesh. So far, Russia has disbursed nearly $5.0 billion for the project. Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear energy organisation, is currently constructing the first nuclear power plant in the country.

The plant is expected to be in operation in 2024.

Meanwhile, during the three-day meeting, ERD said Dhaka-Moscow discussed the aspect of corporations in trade and economic cooperation, power and energy, atomic energy, agriculture, fisheries and livestock, financial, geological research and ICT, education and transport sectors. The two sides explored various areas of cooperation and agreed to have a meaningful engagement to reap mutual benefits.