Iraqi Prime Minister al-Sudani to visit Russia

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani will visit Russia. This was announced by the Russian Ambassador to the Republic Elbrus Kurtashev, writes “RIA News”.

“We asked the friendly Iraqi side to determine a suitable date for the prime minister, and after that the Russian side will choose a suitable date,” the ambassador said.

According to him, the visit of the Iraqi prime minister is an opportunity to discuss, in particular, economic issues between the countries, as well as “political topics and the situation in the world and the region.”

1 July Prime Minister of Iraq spent meeting with Kutrashev, where the parties discussed the date of the upcoming visit of the head of government to Moscow. Following the meeting, the press service of the Iraqi prime minister reported that the Russian ambassador noted “the key role of Iraq and Baghdad’s efforts to bring the points of view closer together.” [стран Ближнего Востока] to improve the level of security and stability in the region”.

In April, the Iraqi authorities and representatives of the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan agreed tentatively on the resumption of oil transportation via the Kirkuk-Ceyhan pipeline to Turkey. The restart of the pipeline was preceded by the then announced decision of the OPEC + member countries to reduce oil production by 1.66 million barrels per day, in addition to the agreements in autumn 2022 to reduce production by 2 million barrels per day. Iraq has pledged to reduce production by 211,000 barrels per day.

Expert of the Russian International Affairs Council Kirill Semenov told “Vedomosti” that the Kurds, arranging the export of oil bypassing the Iraqi government, motivated their actions by the fact that they “do not receive” subsidies from Iraq’s oil revenues and thereby compensate for lost profits.

Now in projects for oil production in Iraq are involved “Lukoil“,”Gazprom Neft“, and “Rosneft“. In 2020, following a meeting between Russian Energy Minister Nikolai Shulginov and Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein, it was reported that the total investment of Russian companies in the development of Iraqi oil fields exceeded $10 billion. Shulginov then also noted the importance of working within the framework of OPEC+ cooperation.