Iraqi-Turkish strategic council meeting kicks off

BAGHDAD / IraqiNews.com: The high council of the Iraqi-Turkish strategic council held on Tuesday its opening session to discuss bilateral cooperation and to implement more than 40 agreements between the two countries, according to a foreign ministry’s statement. “Senior officials and experts of the high council of the Iraqi-Turkish strategic cooperation held on Tuesday afternoon (Oct. 13) the opening session,” said the statement received by IraqiNews.com news agency, noting that the Iraqi side was headed by Undersecretary of Iraqi Foreign Ministry Labied Abbawi, while the Turkish side was headed by Turkish ambassador in Baghdad. The statement quoted the Iraqi official as asserting the importance of intensifying efforts to implement more than 40 agreements and memorandum of understandings between more than nine Iraqi ministries and institutions and their Turkish counterparts. In July Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Iraqi counterpart, Nouri al-Maliki, signed a strategic partnership agreement committing Turkey and Iraq to cooperation in the fields of politics, economy, energy, water, culture and security, during the former’s visit to Baghdad. While outlining the formation of the high-level strategic cooperation council, the agreement also called for respect for each other’s territories. It signaled the two countries’ commitment to “supporting the joint efforts of Iraq and Turkey to prevent the transit of terrorists and illegal arms to and from Iraq and emphasizing the importance of strengthening cooperation between Iraq and Turkey to control their common borders and prevent all kinds of illicit trafficking.” SH (S)/SR 1