27 August 2000
Abuja — As expected, Nigeria's external debt burden, regional and African security issues and co-operation against narcotics and crime, formed part of the 18-topic agenda of bilateral agreements between US President Bill Clinton and his Nigerian counterpart, Olusegun Obasanjo.
Nigerian officials told PANA that both sides also agreed at the Abuja talks Saturday to intensify co-operation on military reform, HIV/AIDS and Poverty Alleviation Programme, a pet project of the Obasanjo administration to which it had committed millions of US dollars.
After the talks, Clinton and Obasanjo signed a joint declaration detailing the issues and the agreements reached.
On Nigeria's estimated 28 billion-US-dollar foreign debt, which the oil-rich nation currently services with about a quarter of its annual budget, Clinton reaffirmed US support for generous Paris Club rescheduling for 2000.
"Beyond this year, the US would support positive consideration by the international financial community of debt reduction for Nigeria in a multilateral context, provided Nigeria makes meaningful progress on economic and financial reforms that can promote poverty alleviation and spur economic growth," the communique said.
Both presidents also agreed that Nigeria had made progress in combating international narcotics trafficking since its return to civil rule in May 1999, and agreed to co-operate on new measures to help reduce the trafficking and international criminal activity.
Clinton offered Nigeria additional assistance in fighting HIV/AIDS and hailed Obasanjo for agreeing to host a major HIV/AIDS summit in 2001.
The leaders also agreed on the critical importance of a well-trained, well-catered for and highly professional military to the success of Nigeria's democratic transition.
Clinton announced that the US had started training and equipping the first of five Nigerian army battalions to be sent to strengthen the UN mission in Sierra Leone, where rebels of the Revolutionary United Front have reneged on a peace accord they signed with the government in July 1999 in Lome.
Clinton, the second American president to visit Nigeria in 22 years, is scheduled to leave Abuja for Tanzania early Monday.
He had been scheduled to return to Nigeria for his plane to refuel before returning to the US.
But his new itinerary will instead take him to Egypt to meet with President Hosni Mubarak as part of efforts to jump-start the stalled Middle-East peace process.
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