Foreign Minister Holds Meeting with his Russian Counterpart in Moscow

Foreign Minister Mr. Fuad Hussein and his Russian counterpart Mr. Sergey Lavrov, held a meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry building on Wednesday, November 25, 2020, during the minister’s visit to Moscow.

The two sides discussed means of strengthening and developing bilateral relations between Baghdad and Moscow in all fields, including areas of a strategic, vital political, economic and commercial nature as an indication of keenness to exchange common interests.

Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein expressed Iraq’s keenness to develop the historical relations that link the two countries, calling for establishing new prospects for cooperation relations, explaining that Iraqi-Russian relations are witnessing a remarkable development, and achievements have been made on the level of bilateral interests, including work to activate 14 memorandums of understanding between the two countries concerning education, higher education, health, oil, and transportation, which will be signed during 2021 and a meeting of the Joint Committee for economic and technical cooperation.

Minister Fuad Hussein praised the effective Russian role in fighting Da’esh terrorist organization, stressing the importance to continue this cooperation in various fields, including the training of Iraqi forces and exchange of intelligence information to prevent the return of terrorist groups’ activity, and the support provided by the Russian Federation to Iraq within the framework of training Iraqi diplomats, the facilities provided by the Russian side to Iraqi students studying in the Russian Federation, and they also discussed facilitating the return of Iraqi students to the Russian Federation to complete their studies.

Minister Fuad Hussein stated the discussion of the Iraqi security file and its relations with neighboring countries, adding that we thank the Russian Federation for its efforts in the field of defeating Da’esh terrorist organization, building security capabilities, training, and advice, in addition to discussing the situation in the Middle East, and means of joint cooperation to relieve tension to spare the area more conflicts.

On his part, Mr. Lavrov, the Foreign Minister of Russian Federation stated that his country is looking forward to the visit of Prime Minister Mr. Mustafa Al-Khadhimi to the Russian capital, Moscow, adding that we support the Iraqi government in its efforts to restore security and stability to Iraq and eliminate terrorism, and we stand by the unity and sovereignty of Iraq.