{"id":26593,"date":"2025-01-15T06:27:56","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=26593"},"modified":"2025-01-15T06:27:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T06:27:56","slug":"iraq-uk-to-enter-new-era-of-strategic-partnership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2025\/01\/iraq-uk-to-enter-new-era-of-strategic-partnership\/","title":{"rendered":"Iraq, UK to enter ‘new era’ of strategic partnership"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has met his Iraqi counterpart Mohammed Shia Al Sudani for talks on trade, security and migration, in a visit hailed as a \u201cnew era\u201d in ties.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Iraqi prime minister\u2019s trip to London, during which he will also meet King Charles III, comes more than 20 years after Britain took part in the US-led invasion of Iraq, reported Reuters.<\/p>\n

A \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d to be signed during the trip would consolidate cooperation and be \u201cone of the most important steps in relations between Iraq and the United Kingdom, representing the start of a new era\u201d, Sudani said during the flight from Baghdad.<\/p>\n

Iraq and Britain have agreed on a trade package worth up to 12.3 billion pounds ($14.98 billion) and a bilateral defence deal, the Iraqi and British prime ministers said in a joint statement.<\/div>\n
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It includes a 1.2-billion-pound project in which British-made power transmission systems will be used for a grid interconnection project between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as a 500-million-pound plan to upgrade the Al-Qayyarah air base in northern Iraq.<\/div>\n
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A water infrastructure project by a UK-led consortium that will help provide clean water in arid southern and western Iraq is also part of the deal, the statement said. The project would be worth up to 5.3 billion pounds in UK exports.<\/div>\n

The three-day visit comes amid a complicated situation in the Middle East fuelled by the\u00a0Gaza conflict, as well as a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

Donald Trump will also\u00a0move back\u00a0into the White House next week, with observers expecting he will resume his hardline stance towards Iran.<\/p>\n

Oil-rich Iraq, which is an ally of Iran as well as a strategic partner for Washington, has for decades practised a delicate balancing act, while also seeking to deepen its ties to wealthy Gulf countries.<\/p>\n

Sudani first met the UK\u2019s head of state King Charles, before meeting Starmer at Downing Street.<\/p>\n

The leaders will unveil a $15 billion export package to boost opportunities for British businesses, it added.<\/p>\n

Starmer said the trip \u201cmarks a new era in UK-Iraq cooperation, which will deliver mutual benefits from trade to defence, as we continue to work together towards stability in the wider region\u201d.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/strong><\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) – British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has met his Iraqi counterpart Mohammed Shia Al Sudani for talks on trade, security and migration, in a visit hailed as a \u201cnew era\u201d in ties. The Iraqi prime minister\u2019s trip to London, during which he will also meet King Charles III, comes more than 20 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":26594,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[990,984,194,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news","category-world","category-headline"],"views":50,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26593"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26595,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26593\/revisions\/26595"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}