The Iraqi and British prime ministers announced on Tuesday that Iraq and Britain had agreed to a trade package worth up to 12.3 billion pounds ($15 billion), as well as a defense deal.
Package
The trade package, which is “equivalent to more than 10 times the total bilateral trade between the UK and Iraq last year” was announced after a meeting between Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiaa Al-Sudani and his British counterpart Keir Starmer in London.
According to a joint statement between the two countries, the package includes a project worth 1.2 billion pounds ($1.46 billion) to interconnect the electricity grid between Iraq and Saudi Arabia using “British-made energy transmission systems,” and a project to rehabilitate the Iraqi Qayyarah Air Base worth 500 million pounds ($610.32 billion). dollar).
The statement added: “A consortium of British companies will lead a major water infrastructure project worth up to 5.3 billion pounds of UK exports. This will improve water quality, irrigate agricultural land and provide clean water in southern and western Iraq, improving living conditions for millions of Iraqis.”
Defense cooperation
The statement indicated that the two prime ministers signed the joint statement on bilateral strategic defense and security relations, “which lays the foundation for a new era in security cooperation.”
Al-Sudani said earlier that the security agreement between Britain and Iraq would develop bilateral military relations after the announcement issued last year which stipulated that the US-led coalition to fight ISIS would end its duties in Iraq in 2026.
The Iraqi Prime Minister began an official visit to Britain on Monday, amid geopolitical transformations in the Middle East.
