“Russia has always taken the view that the process of bringing peace to Iraq needs to have the understanding and support of Iraq’s neighbours and of the entire international community. We see Baghdad’s initiative to hold expanded multilateral meetings on Iraq as a positive step. As you know, Russian representatives take an active part in ministerial forums and in the working groups set up on the basis of their decisions. We will continue this work in coordination with the Iraqi leadership.
I would also like to confirm our interest in developing mutually beneficial ties with Iraq in all different areas. We have made progress in this respect of late. The agreements signed following the meeting of the Russian-Iraqi Commission for Trade, Economic and Science and Technology Cooperation – the Memorandum of Intent on Developing Trade, Economic and Science and Technology Cooperation, and the Intergovernmental Agreement on settling Iraq’s debts to Russia on earlier loans – are, in our view, a good foundation upon which to develop our partnership.
Our companies are ready to make a greater contribution to rebuilding and modernising Iraq’s infrastructure, above all in the energy and oil and gas sectors, areas in which we have much experience and have already laid good groundwork for the future. Promising areas of work include the contract for developing the Western Kurna-2 oilfield and the project to reconstruct the Kirkuk-Banias oil pipeline. I hope that Russian companies’ active resolve to develop cooperation will receive the Iraqi leadership’s support.
In the interests of intensifying our bilateral ties and in accordance with the agreements we have reached, Russia is expanding its diplomatic presence in Iraq. The Russian Consulate in Erbil, which opened in November 2007, will, we hope, become an important channel for facilitating cooperation with Iraqi Kurdistan. We also plan to reopen our consular mission in the south of Iraq, in Basra, in the foreseeable future.”