Davutoglu pledges more cooperation with Iraq

As part of his official visit to Iraq, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu yesterday held talks with top Iraqi officials in Baghdad. Davutoglu first met with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who expressed Iraq's desire to improve bilateral trade ties with Turkey, adding that his country is trustworthy. Commenting on water issues, al-Maliki said that his country supports the trilateral mechanism among Turkey, Syria and Iraq to solve them. As two downstream countries, Syria and Iraq depend on the Tigris and Euphrates (Dicle and Firat) Rivers for water, which originate from Turkey. For his part, Davutoglu stressed the importance placed by Turkey on a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement signed between the two countries during President Abdullah Gul's visit to Baghdad early this year. Davutoglu also held talks with Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi and Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari. Following his meeting with al-Hashimi, Davutoglu said their talks had been fruitful. The comprehensive relations between Turkey and Iraq are based on a common strategic vision, he said. Turkey increased the flow of water to above 500 cubic meters per second and it would be increased more, Davutoglu said on the water issue. For his part, al-Hashimi said that Turkey and Iraq are eager to boost relations and that he was pleased with efforts to activate a bilateral Strategic Cooperation Council. Speaking at a joint press conference after meeting with Zebari, asked about the water issue, Davutoglu said that the water needs of farmers in Basra and Mosul are important and that water should be used efficiently. "We want to make Mesopotamia one of the most prosperous regions of the world. We offer unlimited cooperation to regional countries, especially Syria and Iraq, to make the region a shining star of the world," he said. He added that Turkey has deep-rooted historic and geographic relations with Iraq, and is eager to address problems and boost common interests. Iraq's territorial integrity and political unity carry great importance and Turkey has been closely following developments in Iraq, Davutoglu said. He also said Turkey sees Iraq as not only a friendly neighboring country but also an important strategic partner. For his part, Zebari said commercial and economic cooperation between Turkey and Iraq are at a good level, citing the bilateral trade volume of $7 billion, making Turkey Iraq's biggest trading partner. On the joint fight against the terrorist PKK, he said that the central Iraqi administration and the local administration in northern Iraq would enforce all the decisions taken to deal with terrorism. Stating that Iraq and Turkey agreed to convene the new Strategic Cooperation Council in Turkey next month, Zebari said he had seen Turkey's determination to extend support to Iraq. Zebari added that they discussed the trilateral mechanism among Syria, Iraq and Turkey on the water issue, as well as the trilateral anti-terrorism mechanism among Turkey, Iraq and the US. "Iraq will keep all its promises," he added. Davutoglu also met with Iraqi Parliament Speaker Iyad al-Sammarai. Davutoglu was accompanied by State Minister for Foreign Trade Zafer Caglayan, Turkish Ambassador in Baghdad Derya Tanbay and Turkey's Special Envoy in Iraq Murat Ozcelik.