Yury Borisov visits Iraq

During his stay in Baghdad, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Yury Borisov held talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Iraq Fuad Hussein and met with Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi and, separately, with President Barham Salih. The participants in the meetings discussed joint projects in energy and industry.

Ahead of the session of the Russian-Iraqi Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation, which is scheduled to take place in Moscow this year, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov met with its co-chair, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Iraq Fuad Hussein.

The discussion focused on the dynamics of trade, joint Russian-Iraqi energy projects, and industrial cooperation. The officials spoke about the opportunities for increasing exports of Russian equipment and pharmaceuticals, expanding the range of agricultural exports and implementing joint projects in Iraq. 'Iraq is one of Russia's key partners in the Middle East,' Mr Borisov said. 'We are interested in settling conflicts in Iraq and neighbouring Syria as soon as possible and in eradicating the terrorist threat from ISIS and other groups,' he said. 'We support the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Iraqi state. We attach great importance to the development of the entire range of bilateral ties, and paying close attention to the restoration of the Iraqi economy and invigoration of cooperation in priority areas, such as energy, industrial and military-technical cooperation, transport and agriculture,' Mr Borisov said.

After the talks, Yury Borisov met with President of Iraq Barham Salih and separately, with Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi. 'The talks with the top officials took place in a constructive atmosphere. We discussed key current and future projects,' Mr Borisov said.