Babacan: Previous Aid Agreements With United States Are Still Valid

Noting that the general feeling was positive on finalizing the motion on deployment of foreign troops in Turkey in a positive way, Babacan said regarding the 6 billion U.S. dollars of donation that would possibly be obtained from the United States, ”two billion U.S. dollars part of this will be used for military purposes, and the remaining four billion U.S. dollars part of it will be used in fields apart from military purposes. We can transform this four billion U.S. dollars into loan. Under this, we reached a deal with the United States on approval of short term bridge loan when President Bush goes to the Congress for supplementary budget.”
Meanwhile, in an interview on CNBC-E television channel, Babacan said that the pre-conditions of U.S. loan were inclusion of non-interest surplus target in the budget and signing of letter of intent.
Stressing that the 2003 year budget would be approved by the parliament in a way that would give a 6.5 percent non-interest surplus, and the letter of intent would be signed, Babacan said that there was not any problem about those issues