PM Al-Sudani: we hope that visiting Paris will achieve sustainable partnership

INA-  Baghdad

Prime Minister Mohamed Shia Al-Sudani expressed on Wednesday his hope that his visit to France will be a good sign and lay the right foundations for a sustainable partnership.

The Prime Minister said in an article published by the French newspaper Le Monde followed by the Iraqi News Agency (INA), that "The Iraqi government is currently more convinced of its vision of developing Iraq's regional and international relations on the basis of cooperation and balance, moving away from the policy of axes and adopting the concept of partnership with many countries in the world, most notably France."

"Baghdad and Paris' response to the shared sense of strategic importance of the relation between our two countries prompted our government to show more keenness to develop bilateral relation and build on its solid foundations," he said.

He added that, "When Iraq faced the dangers of terrorism and fought a fateful war against the forces of evil and darkness, France was one of the first countries, which provided assistance and participated in Iraq's liberation of its territories, particularly in the war to liberate Mosul. In addition, our joint cooperation in the aspects of armaments, training and intelligence effort indicates a long-term strategic partnership between Baghdad and Paris to ensure that the achievements made in the fight against terrorism and stability in the region are maintained."

Al-Sudani pointed out during the article that "our country's desire to consolidate military and security cooperation with the French side, is consistent with our goal to raise the capabilities of our combat security forces, and it is now achieving that end, which makes Iraq not in need for foreign combat forces, but rather advisory forces to meet the needs of our forces for training and equipment, and this means that we always need to review the relation with the International Coalition and draw a map of future cooperation in light of the permanent development in the combat capabilities of our armed forces."

In other respect, the Prime Minister stressed that “The advancement of the national economy is one of the Iraqi government's top priorities. Our government aims to make optimal use of the huge economic capabilities, as Iraq is OPEC's second largest oil producer and has one of the largest oil and gas reserves in the world, the corporations such as Total Energies and Alstom are welcome to work in Iraq in the energy field, such as exploiting associated gas, injecting water into oil wells, developing renewable energy production, as well as Baghdad metro project which is designated to ease the traffic congestion in the capital, which we attach great importance to, and all these are good examples of partnership and economic cooperation."

He pointed out that “our government intends to be a major driving force in regional diplomacy and political paths, and this was clearly reflected in the Baghdad 2nd Conference held with the support of President Macron recently in the Jordanian capital, Amman, as we were keen to express Iraq's refusal to use its lands to threaten the neighboring countries, demonstrating our refusal at the same time to reject any violations on our lands.

He continued that “Iraq, through its distinguished relations with its regional environment, has become a meeting point for other countries, aims to converge the views of Saudi Arabia and Iran, this comes from our belief that stabilizing the region comes by overcoming the obstacles. We will continue our seeking to bring the views between Tehran and Riyadh closer together, since we believe that dialogue and meetings are the best way for reaching a common ground until these understandings reach an advanced stage in the next meetings.

He pointed out that “The cooperation between Paris and Baghdad includes many sectors like health, education, culture and climate. France works to preserve environment and fights effects and dangers of climate change, and we intend to build a continuous partnership to protect heritage and fight antiquities trafficking. Concerning the health sector, France intended to build a hospital in Sinjar the matter that we show our gratitude for, as it supports an important segment of our Iraqi people.”

Iraq is dedicated to democracy and respects the rights of its people. This is proved by giving the Yazidi people the right to own their houses and lands after they were deprived from this right for over 50 years. We know and respect the status of Iraq and the Iraqi people of all segments, believing that the unity of the Iraqi people is behind its power which it is proud of, and deepens our unity as Iraqis, we all seek for prosperity, brotherhood, equality and justice.