On June 2, RIAC Director General Andrey Kortunov and Deputy Program Director Timur Makhmutov received Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Ismieal Shafiq Muhsin. The sides underlined both the positive shifts in the bilateral dialogue, among them the trip of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Baghdad early this year and the 70-year anniversary of the diplomatic relations, and certain shortages in practical interaction that are most vivid in the economic area.
On June 2, RIAC Director General Andrey Kortunov and Deputy Program Director Timur Makhmutov received Iraqi Ambassador to Russia Ismieal Shafiq Muhsin.
The sides underlined both the positive shifts in the bilateral dialogue, among them the trip of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to Baghdad early this year and the 70-year anniversary of the diplomatic relations, and certain shortages in practical interaction that are most vivid in the economic area.
Much attention was given to attracting Russian small and medium enterprises to Kurdistan and Basra, the two most stable territories. According to Mr. Muhsin, Russian companies are quite active in Iraqi oil production, electric power sector and farming. Following the economic decline caused by the war, revival of the Russian presence is slow, while the initiative belongs to South and Southeast Asian firms, primarily from India, Malaysia, Pakistan and South Korea.
Since the situation requires an unbiased assessment and proposals to make the cooperation vibrant and mutually beneficial, the participants attached special importance to the expert-level Russia-Iraq cooperation and agreed on holding a series of events to discuss the economic interaction and produce analytical papers containing specific recommendations on strengthening the bilateral relationship.
