Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros Kouvelis visited Baghdad on 6 June for meetings with representatives of the Iraqi political leadership. This was the first such visit of a member of the Greek government to Iraq since the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime.
Mr. Kouvelis was received by Iraqi President Talabani, who expressed his deep appreciation for Greece and the historical relations between the two countries, noting the need to promote and deepen Greek-Iraqi bilateral relations.
Mr. Kouvelis’s consultations with his Iraqi counterpart, Mr. Abbawi, included detailed discussion of specific cooperation sectors: energy, construction, communications, agriculture, food, pharmaceuticals, inter-university cooperation and broader cultural cooperation. The two sides underscored the importance of the upcoming meeting, in November 2011, of the long-inactive Greek-Iraqi Joint Interministerial Committee (JIC).
The agenda for the November JIC, which is of decisive importance for the further development of Greek-Iraqi economic relations, was discussed in Mr. Kouvelis’s meeting with his JIC co-chair, Iraqi Agriculture Minister Al-Abodi, and will be worked out in detail via diplomatic channels.
All of Mr. Kouvelis’s collocutors expressed the view that Greek enterprises could profit greatly from capitalizing on opportunities arising in the reconstruction sector in Iraq.
June 7, 2011