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Egyptian PM Meets with Iraqi Official on Economic Ties
Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Obeid met with Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammad Mehdi Salah December 5 to discuss ways of expanding bilateral economic relations.
Salah, who arrived here earlier in the day, said after the meeting that the Iraqi-Egyptian relations "are being promoted in various fields," Egypt's official Middle East News Agency reported.
The two countries have reached an agreement on taking "clear-cut steps" for strengthening trade and economic cooperation, he added.
Mokhtar Khatab, Egyptian minister of public enterprises who attended the meeting, said the volume of the Egyptian exports to Iraq will reach about US$1 billion this year, under the United Nations oil-for-food program.
Egypt and Iraq resumed diplomatic relations last month, which were severed after Egypt joined the multi-national forces in 1991 to end Iraq's occupation out of Kuwait.
Since the UN program was launched in 1996 to allow Iraq to sell oil and buy humanitarian goods, Egypt has been making efforts to develop the trade ties with Iraq. It is now Iraq's largest trade partner in the Arab world and the fifth largest in the world.
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