Senior Turkish officials are visiting the Iraqi capital today for security consultations and discussions over energy co-operation, the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs said. The visit precedes a trip by Turkish president Recep Tayyep Erdogan to Iraq before the end of April.
Foreign minister Hakan Fidan, defence minister Yasar Guler, and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin will hold talks with Iraqi counterparts, hosted by Iraq's minister of foreign affairs Fuad Hussein. "During the meeting, various topics on our bilateral agenda, particularly co-operation in the fields of combatting terrorism, security as well as military co-operation will be discussed thoroughly," Turkey's foreign ministry said.
Relations between Baghdad and Ankara have strained in recent years, specifically as Turkey pursued a more aggressive military strategy against Kurdish separatist group PKK — which Turkey, the US and EU view as a terrorist organisation. "Developing a common understanding in counterterrorism and concrete steps that can be taken in that regard will be on the table," a Turkish foreign ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli said on 13 March. "The PKK being defined as a common security threat by Iraqi authorities is a sign that the desire to battle the PKK is developing in Iraq and we welcome this."
Keceli, whose comments were carried by Turkish state-owned news agency Anadolu, added that there will be talks to develop natural gas resources in Iraq and ship them to international markets. He also noted that the resumption of oil flows from the Iraq-Turkey pipeline would be discussed during the meetings.
Separately, Turkey's deputy foreign minister Ahmet Yıldız confirmed Erdogan's visit, which is meant to discuss energy co-operation among other issues, and comes after the one-year anniversary of the halt in around 470,000 b/d of Iraq's crude exports. Erdogan's last visit to Baghdad took place in 2012 when he served as prime minister.
The ruling by the Paris-based International Chamber of Commerce in March last year further complicated the situation, because it found Ankara had breached a 1973 agreement with Iraq by allowing crude marketed by the KRG to be exported without Baghdad's consent. Turkey is also holding out on paying $1.47bn that the court said it owed Baghdad in compensation for breaching the pipeline deal.
Turkey has said it is ready to resume exports through its Mediterranean port of Ceyhan. But disagreements between Baghdad and Erbil specifically over the contracts of the international oil companies operating in Kurdistan, Iraq, have prevented a restart.
