Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs meets the Acting head of the European Commission, the European Lifestyle Promotion Commissioner in Brussels

    The Iraqi Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Fuad Hussain has met on Thursday 20/1/2022 on the sidelines of his visit to Belgium the capital of Brussels the Acting head of the European Commission, the European Lifestyle Promotion Commissioner Margretes Shinas. The two sides discussed the bilateral relations between the Republic of Iraq and the EU.

    His Excellency thanked the EU for its decision to lift Iraq`s name from the list of the high risk states Anti- money laundering and funding terrorism, and the contribution of the EU to support the stability of Iraq, commending the member states efforts of the EU and its partnership in the International Alliance to fight ISIS.

      The two sides has discussed the current issues on the Iraqi, Regional and International arena and the joint concern issues, among which the migration of thousands of Iraqis to the European States last year, and the efforts of the Iraqi government to deal with the migration case and bring them back voluntarily. His Excellency explained briefly the procedures taken by the Iraqi government in this field to bring back its stranded citizens   on the boarders of some European states, like Belarus, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Iraq has brought back round 4000 Iraqi citizen via 10 special flights organized by the Iraqi Airways in cooperation with the member states of the EU, Emphasizing the importance of the Migration Dialogue with the European side and the support of voluntary return of the Iraqi asylum seekers in the European states by making a special plan to qualify them and to support the Iraqi Government to facilitate the voluntary return back.  

   On his part, the Acting head of the European Commissioner has confirmed the depth of the Relations between the two sides, and has estimated the role of Iraq to eliminate ISIS, showing the importance of cooperation and partnership between Iraq and the EU, and the concern of the EU for the stability of Iraq, and the depth  of the relations between the two sides.

   He expressed his gratitude for the Iraqi attitudes towards calming down, avoiding escalation in the region and it’s doing best to decrease the migrants crisis, commending the procedures of the Iraqi government in this field in cooperation with the EU States to eliminate the illegal migration and to combat the smuggling nets and to provide all the necessities to help the migrants to return back to Iraq voluntarily.