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Roundup: Iraq Woos Arab, European States to Walk out of Isolation
Iraq has been intensifying efforts to strengthen relations, especially trade ties, with Arab and European countries to break the decade-old United Nations sanctions and walk out of isolation.
The Iraqi government's efforts are manifested in the exchange of visits and signing of lucrative contracts between Iraq and these countries.
Iraq Gives Priority to Improving Ties With Other Arab States President Saddam Hussein has said Iraq should give preferential treatments to Arab countries in developing trade ties with them. By taking advantage of the latest visit by Algerian Minister of Commerce Mourad Medelci, Iraq shows its keenness to improve and strengthen ties with other Gulf and Arab countries.
The visit was highly valued by the Iraqi leadership. Senior Iraqi officials, including Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Deputy Prime Minister Tareq Aziz, Minister of Finance Hikmet Mizban Ibrahim, Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Salah, Health Minister Umid Medhat Mubarak and Foreign Minister Mohammad Said Al-Sahaf, all held talks with the Algerian minister during his July 10-13 visit.
Algeria is just one of the Arab countries with which Iraq hopes to establish friendly relations to break its isolation in the Arab world.
Close economic and trade ties have resulted in the resumption of diplomatic ties between Iraq and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The trade volume between the two countries, within the framework of the UN oil-for-food program, has increased to 400 million US dollars a year.
The UN humanitarian program allows Iraq to sell oil, under UN supervision, to buy basic goods such as food, medicine and other supplies to help offset the crippling impacts of the sanctions.
The UAE has announced some 80 companies are expected to attend the Baghdad International Fair in November, while there were only 30 last year.
Oman is just another example. The week-long Omani Products Fair, which concluded on May 16, enabled the Omani companies on exhibition to gain contracts worth 40 million dollars, seven million dollars more than the total sum of contracts Oman signed with Iraq under the past seven phases of the UN oil-for-food deal.
Besides Oman and the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar have also renewed diplomatic ties with Iraq.
Trade ties between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, a close American ally, are improving. In March, more than 50 trucks carrying medicine and medical reagents from Saudi Arabia arrived in Baghdad as part of a contract for Iraq to import 300 trucks of medicine and medical reagents from Saudi Arabia, with each truck's load amounting to 18 tons.
Now the yearly trade volume between the two countries has exceeded 100 million dollars.
Iraq's traditional rival Syria has confirmed it will exchange interest sections with Iraq, while Iraq-influenced Lebanon has already restored diplomatic relations with Iraq.
Egypt has reaped a lot by developing trade ties with Iraq. Nearly 100 Egyptian companies participated in the exhibition held in Baghdad last April, and secured contracts worth 100 million dollars from Iraq.
Egypt has won contracts worth one billion dollars under the past seven phases of the UN oil-for-food program.
What is more, there have been signs of thaw or improvement in trade relations between Iraq and Jordan, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan, Indonesia and other Arab and Muslim countries.
Iraq Cements Ties With Europe
Iraq has attached great importance to maintaining and developing relations with Russia, its traditional ally.
As Iraq's biggest trade partner, Russia has got contracts worth over six billion dollars during the past seven phases of the UN oil-for-food deal.
In return, Russian President Vladimir Putin has promised to his Iraqi counterpart Saddam Hussein that Russia is determined to push for the removal of the U.N. sanctions, which were imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Such a message was conveyed to Saddam by Putin's special envoy Nikolai Khorotzeiv, who visited Iraq in May.
Russia has also expressed its willingness to restore military cooperation with Iraq after the UN sanctions on Iraq are lifted. In addition to Russia, Iraq has strengthened relations with France, Italy, Germany and other European Union (EU) countries which are more sympathetic with Iraq.
France, another important trade partner of Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War, has been urging its firms to make larger investments in Iraq.
France upgraded its representation in Iraq last year by sending a diplomat to run its interest section in Baghdad for the first time since 1990, besides the already-opened trade center in Baghdad.
At the invitation of his Italian counterpart, Iraqi National Assembly (Parliament) Speaker Saadoun Hamadi headed for Rome on June 7 for a landmark visit to Italy. This is the first time for a senior Iraqi official to visit an EU country.
The Italian parliament passed a resolution on June 21, demanding the government to support the lifting of UN sanctions on Iraq and reopen the Italian embassy in Iraq.
Germany, which is trying not to be left behind, sent a 78-member industrial and business delegation to Iraq in late May to seek a share of Iraq's market.
After talks with Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, Oil Minister Amir Muhammad Rashid, Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Salah and other senior Iraqi officials, the German delegation signed a number of contracts to provide medicine, medical appliances, oil spare parts and agricultural equipment for Iraq.
In an interview with the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), the Iraqi trade minister said trade ties between Iraq and Germany "will witness important and big steps" during the forthcoming period.
Meanwhile, Romania, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece and other European countries have sent officials or business delegations to Iraq, trying to gain a slice of its profitable market.
Iraq Still Has a Long Way to Go Iraq in reconstruction, a market of 200 billion dollars, has been attracting officials and business delegations from all over the world to Iraq for business talks.
Motivated by economic interests, these profit-seeking countries are vying for Iraq's market by gaining contracts under the UN oil-for-food program.
Moreover, these countries are very cautious in dealing with Iraq by sending only low-ranking officials to the country, for fear of offending the US and its Western allies which have been vehemently opposed to any lifting of the UN sanctions on Iraq unless it is cleared of weapons of mass destruction.
It is also noteworthy that although the number of countries calling for lifting the UN sanctions on Iraq is increasing, there is more oral support than concrete actions.
All these factors have somewhat dampened Iraq's hope that the strengthening of trade ties will lead to the improvement of political ties between Iraq and Arab, European countries, and ultimately result in the breaking of the UN sanctions as well as its international isolation.
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