INA - BAGHDAD

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs - MOFA announced, on Monday, the submission of a study and vision to expand the map of Iraqi diplomatic representation.

"We submitted a study on the map of Iraqi diplomatic representation last year as part of the work of the annual ambassadors' conference held in November. We tried to highlight the embassies in terms of their importance and our relations with countries as to establish a system for classifying them based on our political, economic, educational and technical pillars as well as the presence of communities," said the MOFA Undersecretary for Political Planning Affairs, Hisham Al-Alawi, to the Iraqi News Agency - INA. 

He noted, "We submitted a vision regarding expanding the map of diplomatic representation. Between the past and current years, embassies and consulates were opened based on the approval of the Parliament."

"Embassies were opened in Vietnam, New Zealand, Addis Ababa, Africa, Ireland in Dublin, Australia, Guandu in China, Isfahan, Texas, Toronto in Canada, and other countries," he added, noting that "MOFA takes a set of factors into consideration to evaluate diplomatic relations with any country, including political positions, economic relations, trade exchange, security, scientific, military, educational and cultural cooperation in addition to the number of Iraqi communities in that country, and the consular services of their needs."

Al-Alawi pointed out that "some countries may not have a large volume of trade, but they are important to us politically, security-wise, educationally, or they have an Iraqi community. In countries in which we do not have a community it doesn't mean that we do not open an embassy or consulate. If we consider these factors, we will be able to understand the importance of having an embassy and consulate in a country or city, such as Turkey."

He explained that "the Turkish residents in Iraq are few, but the Iraqis in Turkey are many. With the embassy in Ankara, we need consulates. We have them in Istanbul and Gaziantep. There was an intention to increase the number of consulates to be closer to the citizens who exceed hundreds of thousands. The volume of trade exchange with Turkey is large as our political relations, security and military cooperation are great, in addition to the fact that there are thousands of Iraqi students in schools and universities."

"South Africa is very important and has a diversified economy that is strongly present in the General Assembly and the African Union. It has relations with Arab countries and an experience of democratic change as well as economic and educational diversity, but the number of Iraqis there is small. This does not mean that we do not open a special embassy, for the embassy in South Africa covers 10 of the surrounding countries," he pointed out.

MOFA Undersecretary for Political Planning Affairs explained that "In general, the use of artistic and cultural tools is important in diplomatic work. It is considered a tool of soft power, and the Iraqis are distinguished in this aspect in the matters of art and culture, as we can invest a lot in this matter to present a bright, positive image of Iraq."