was rejected. In 1967, the Labour government used the reserve in settling mutuals claims with the Soviet Union. On 5 January 1968, an agreement between the UK and USSR was achieved, and the Soviet Union renounced all claims to the Baltic gold held in the Bank of England in return for the waiver of all claims by the UK resulted by the nationalization in the USSR. In 1992 and 1993, the United Kingdom government transferred an equal amount of gold reserves equivalent to £90 million back to the Baltic countries. The three Baltic governments' assets deposited in Sweden were released to Soviet Union immediately after the Soviets demanded the Baltics' gold reserves to be handed over in 1940. The amount was compensated in 1992 by Sweden to the three countries soon after they had regained full independence. In 1991, Sweden promised Estonia to restitute the gold and in 1998 the Swedish government discovered the bank accounts belonging to Baltic nationalities. The French government refused to turn over the three tons of gold deposited in the Bank of France by Latvia and Lithuania to the USSR. The gold reserves deposited by the three Baltic states prior to 1940 into the Bank for International Settlements in Switzerland remained intact. After Baltic countries regained independence in 1991, the Baltic gold was released to the central banks of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Property After the 1940 occupation, there were issues related to the property of Baltic citizens abroad. The majority of foreign states refused to send Baltic ships in their ports to the Soviet Union. The Soviet government brought lawsuits against Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States without results. American and British courts did not recognise the Soviet authority to the property of Baltic nationals. However, states gave Baltic legations and consulates to the Soviet Union. With some of transfers were stated that the process did not involve legal title. At the end of the Second World War, the building housing the Estonian Legation in Berlin was placed under guardianship by the German authorities. On September 23, 1991, a German court lifted that guardianship and restituted the property to Estonia. Liabilities On 4 December 1991, leaders of the "constituent republics" of the Soviet Union (which ceased to exist a few weeks later) signed the treaty on the division of the Soviet foreign debt. The three independent Baltic countries refused to participate