Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kazemi left Baghdad for the Turkish capital, Ankara, on his first official visit, while he was in office at the head of a high-level delegation, at the invitation of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish presidential sources said that President Erdogan will hold a bilateral meeting with Al-Kazemi to discuss bilateral relations in a broad way, especially the economic and commercial side, as the two parties will discuss increasing the volume of trade exchange between them, which reached nearly $ 16 billion last year.

The two sides will also discuss activating joint committees between the two countries, especially the Supreme Council for Strategic Cooperation and the Joint Economic Committee headed by the oil and energy ministers in both countries.

The two parties will also discuss cooperation in the field of water and borders.

In the security field, the two parties will discuss the implementation of the Sinjar region agreement in Iraq and the concentration of the PKK in it and in northern Iraq.

He will meet with Turkish President @rterdogan_ar and Turkish officials, to discuss strengthening bilateral cooperation between Iraq and Turkey, in addition to discussing a number of files and issues of common interest.

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- Media Office of the Prime Minister (@IraqiPMO) December 17, 2020

Strengthening relations With regard to the


visit, Iraqi political analyst Ihssan Al-Shammari said that Iraq is looking forward to strengthening its relations with Turkey, especially as the nature of the situation in the region represents a challenge for all.

On Iraqi-Turkish relations, Al-Shammari, head of the political think tank, said, "Iraq is looking forward to Turkish understanding in the issue of its need for water and reaching understandings or concluding an agreement on organizing water quotas" on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

The two rivers originate in southeastern Turkey, pass through Syria and reach Iraq, which invests their water to generate electric power and grow crops.

The rivers constitute a major source of water resources in Iraq, but the water levels in them have decreased during the past years due to a significant decrease in the amount of rain due to climate change.

Iraq is also looking forward, according to Al-Shammari, to a Turkish understanding that the Turkish air strikes and military operations inside Iraq represent a challenge to the two countries with regard to combating and encircling armed forces, in addition to intelligence cooperation in the field of combating terrorism.

On the economic issue, Al-Shammari said that Turkey is one of the important countries in the region, and it has a large trade exchange with Iraq, so this file will be discussed in depth during Al-Kazemi's visit.

He added that Al-Kazemi will seek to persuade the owners of capital, businessmen and Turkish companies to invest in Iraq, especially in the file of reconstructing cities affected by the war against ISIS.

Al-Kazemi's (right) upcoming visit to Turkey will be the first since he took office as prime minister (communication sites)

Overcoming the difficulties

For his part, a member of the faculty at the Faculty of Political Science at the Ankara University of Social Sciences, Dr. Masoud Ozcan, said that improving its relations with neighboring Turkey would help Iraq overcome the current difficulties and problems it is experiencing.

He added that Al-Kazemi is working to develop relations with Turkey, because he believes that it contributes to establishing stability in Iraq.

For his part, the expert on Middle East affairs, Turkish researcher Ali Samin, said that Al-Kazemi is trying to liberate Iraq from Iranian influence under American pressure, and that he attaches special importance to developing relations with neighboring countries for this purpose.