Maliki’s visit to Russia important to diversify armament resources – MPs

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: A number of lawmakers from different political blocs described the visit made by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to Russia as an important and positive toward the development of Iraq’s relations with the hegemonic powers and the diversity of armament resources. “Al-Maliki’s visit to Moscow is important and will bring about good results as the Iraqi government is trying to give Russia an important role in Iraq and to benefit from Russian arms, in which Iraqis already have experience,” Taha al-Lahiebi, a member of the parliament’s foreign relations committee, told IraqiNews.com news agency. “Iraq has to have good relations with all countries in the world, including countries with political and international weight such as Russian,” the lawmaker, who belongs to the Iraqi Accord Front (IAF), added. “Russia has a political and international weight in the world as it is considered a hegemonic power and one of the countries which has the veto right in the UN Security Council,” he also said. On Thursday (April 9), Maliki led a high-ranking delegation on an official visit to Moscow, which is expected to last until April 11, as part of a tour that includes also Paris and London. For his part, an MP from the Kurdistan Alliance and member of he defense and security committee, Adel Barawri, said “the Iraqi delegation discussed a number of issues, mainly supplying the Iraqi army with Russian weapons,” noting that Iraq seeks not to depend on one country alone from which to buy weapons. “Reactivating relations with all countries is a good thing, especially Russia as it is one of the major countries in the world and has common interests and Iraq was one of the most important countries counting on the Russian weapons,” he explained. “Buying the Russian weapons is a good thing as the Iraqi soldier is familiar in dealing with the Russian arms, in addition to diversifying the armaments resources,” he said. Nour al-Din al-Hayali, a member of the parliament’s oil and gas committee, said that “the return of Russian investment in the oil sector will benefit the Iraqi people.” On Friday (April 10), Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko said that Prime Minister Maliki and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed during their meeting on Friday (April 10) to re-activate contracts that had been concluded between the two sides prior to the 2003 war. “The contracts signed between Russian and Iraqi companies before the war were agreed to be activated, which is a huge step,” said Shmatko in a press conference held during the Maliki-Putin meeting today (April 10). Maliki met the Russian prime minister during his second day of his official visit to Russia, where he arrived on Thursday. The visit, upon an invitation from Putin, ran until April 11. Maliki said the Russian companies boast great experience in cooperation with Iraq, adding Baghdad is calling for expanding the presence of Russian firms on the Iraqi market. For his part, Putin said Iraq is an old honest partner of Russia. “We have historical relations and we have done much in previous contracts,” said the Russian premier, noting his country is interested in having a flourishing, independent, powerful and unified Iraq.   SH (I)/SR 1