Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's remarks and an answer to a media question at a joint news conference following talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq Fuad Hussein, Baghdad, February 6, 2023
6 February 2023 14:23
196-06-02-2023
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to thank the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, Mr Fuad Hussein, for the substantive talks and a fulfilling programme for our delegation in Baghdad.
Today, we discussed bilateral relations in depth focusing on our trade, economic and investment ties. Russian oil companies have made major investments - over $13 billion - in Iraq and have far-reaching plans with their Iraqi partners. Amid the illegal restrictions imposed by the Americans and their satellites, it is critically important to protect these legitimate economic relations against the illegal pressure exerted by the West. As a matter of fact, many countries in the region are doing this by avoiding transactions in dollars (including payment for oil imports) in favour of transactions in the currencies of other reliable economies which value their good name as participants in international economic transactions. We have many positive experiences in contacts with our Iraqi friends.
We look forward to agreeing on a date for holding the Intergovernmental Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation meeting in Baghdad. Without a doubt, our businesses and officials from the ministries of the economy and energy will be guided in their actions by the national interests of each of the parties. An approach like that makes it possible to find mutually acceptable solutions to a variety of issues.
We discussed humanitarian ties between our countries. Starting with the upcoming academic year, we will increase the Iraqi student quota from 200 to 260 grants. More than 4,200 students from this friendly country are studying in our country today.
Another group of 60 officials from the Iraqi Foreign Ministry was accepted to the Russian Diplomatic Academy in 2021. More Iraqi Foreign Ministry staff will come to study during this academic year.
Our friends updated us on current developments in Iraq. They were fully supportive of the efforts being undertaken by the government led by Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani to improve the situation and to normalise relations between Baghdad and Erbil in order to ensure security and to fight terrorism.
Promoting the Syrian settlement is an important aspect of cooperation. Baghdad is home to a four-way information centre that has proven valuable in the efforts to eradicate levers of terrorism in neighbouring Syria. Like in Iraq, Kurds make up a large share of the population in Syria. Unfortunately, our US colleagues continue to play with fire as they continue to encourage Kurdish separatism in every possible way while ignoring not only Syria's territorial integrity and sovereignty, but also the risks that such "dallying" creates for other countries in the region that are populated by Kurds.
We will continue to interact within the Astana format which was created by Russia, Türkiye and Iran. Iraq has an observer status. We find this very helpful. Jordan and Lebanon are observer states as well.
We covered the Persian Gulf situation which needs our daily attention. We advocate developing equitable and mutually beneficial approaches that would form the collective security basis for the Arab countries of the region and Iraq.
In conjunction with other responsible international players, Russia is willing to do its best to facilitate this and to shape the environment for maintaining this dialogue. At the request of the Minister, we provided comment on the Ukraine-related developments and the West's many years of preparations for a hybrid war against the Russian Federation. We cited the facts to make it clear that the purpose of thwarting these agreements was to create conditions for arming Ukraine against the Russian Federation and obliterating the rights of the Russian and Russian-speaking residents of the Ukrainian state. A series of specific legislative acts aimed at limiting the rights of the Russian and other ethnic minorities in Ukraine were adopted with this goal in mind as well.
Fuad Hussein said Iraq was for peace. We fully support and respect this position. As my counterpart pointed out, Iraq knows firsthand what war is all about. We remember the pretexts for the war against Iraq produced at the UN Security Council 20 years ago. It all turned out to be a lie. What the United States did (in conjunction with its NATO colleagues) to Iraq and then to Libya cannot be compared to the conflicts that we are talking about and dealing with today.
We remember Mosul, other Iraqi cities, and Syrian Raqqa leveled to the ground, as well as other war crimes which at that time did not cause any unease among the international community or the desire to bring these circumstances (primarily the war in Iraq and Libya) to the focus of the international agenda.
Things that our Western colleagues are trying to accomplish now go to show that the issue is about whether they can further maintain their hegemony in order to realise their push to suppress dissent and the independence of any country in the international arena. This is what the rules promoted by the Americans and their underlings in the international arena are all about. They are trying to substitute them for the UN Charter principles which (we never tire of repeating) mean respect for the sovereign equality of states. It's a simple statement. Anyone who is even slightly interested in practical matters will look at what the United States and its allies are doing and understand that they completely disregard the obligation imposed by the UN Charter.
We will continue to maintain close contacts with our colleagues and to consider acute and long-standing issues plaguing this region that have remained unresolved for decades. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the creation of the Palestinian state are among our key priorities. It is comforting to know that the League of Arab States keeps working on this issue and has teamed up with us to resume the efforts of the international community in order to fulfill the goals that were set by the Security Council and the UN General Assembly. Frankly, the West is trying to push them into the background, imposing instead on the world its own interpretation of the developments in Ukraine, where a hybrid war against our country is underway.
There are more issues in that region that need our attention. We are preparing a regular Russia - League of Arab States ministerial meeting which should take place in the first half of the year. We will have an in-depth discussion of everything, primarily, the issues of the long-suffering Middle East region.
I would like to once again thank my colleague and friend and express hope that next time we will meet in the Russian Federation. I am pleased to invite him to come see us on a visit again.
Question (retranslated from Arabic): What can you say about prospective Russian investment in oil and gas in Iraqi Kurdistan?
Sergey Lavrov: I can only confirm what Fuad Hussein said. Our companies are working here on the basis of agreements that were reached with the central Government of Iraq.
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