Debt Talks

German Deputy Finance Minister Caio Koch-Weser is in Moscow for talks focusing on Russia's sovereign debt to Germany ahead of a bilateral summit in Berlin next week, his ministry said on Thursday. A ministry spokeswoman confirmed that Koch-Weser was in Moscow but she said it remained unclear whether any kind of debt agreement would be readied for signing in time for the June 15-16 summit. Spokeswoman Maria Heider also said it was not immediately clear whether Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin would be a member of President Vladimir Putin's delegation visiting Berlin. "If the Russian finance minister comes it is possible that a debt restructuring agreement could be signed," Heider told. She declined to give further details. A Russian government source confirmed in Moscow that Koch-Weser, who is Berlin's point man for international financial relations, was scheduled to meet Kudrin on Friday. Germany, Russia's largest foreign lender holding around half of Moscow's $43 billion in sovereign debt, has maintained a firm line against writing off Russian debt after a restructuring deal struck with the Paris Club of sovereign lenders last year.