Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the opening ceremony of an exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations with the Republic of Iraq, Moscow, September 11, 2024

I am delighted to welcome you at the opening ceremony of an exhibition marking the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Russia and Iraq.

I would like to thank the management and employees of the Department of History and Records for their painstaking and high-quality work to organise the event.

The exhibition features materials from the Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation on the history of our multilateral collaboration, from the first telegrams on establishing diplomatic relations to photo reports covering recent talks and meetings.

Diplomatic ties were established on September 9, 1944. At that time, the Soviet leadership was already seriously thinking about the need to launch close cooperation with the Arab world. Since then, over the past 80 years, our countries consistently expanded and strengthened bilateral collaboration across the board.

Our cooperation thrived in the 1970s and the 1980s. In April 1972, the Soviet Union signed the Treaty on Friendship and Cooperation with the Republic of Iraq. Industrial enterprises, railways, power plants and other elements of the production and social infrastructure were built in the Republic of Iraq with the assistance of our specialists, and they served as the pillar of the national economy. Moscow ranked among Baghdad’s leading trade partners. Soviet universities trained highly skilled specialists for the Iraqi economy.

When the Republic of Iraq faced one of the most horrendous contemporary challenges, specifically, international terrorism in the form of the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant, Russia was among the first countries to give a helping hand to our friends. To repel terrorist attacks, we quickly started delivering modern Russian weapons and military equipment to Iraq. Today, we continue to assist Iraq in strengthening its law enforcement agencies.

We maintain trust-based political dialogue at the high and top levels. In October 2023, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani paid an official visit to Russia. It is gratifying that the Republic of Iraq remains one of Russia’s leading trade and economic partners in the Arab world. 

The oil and gas sector traditionally remains the central element of our cooperation. We successfully implement a number of major projects involving leading Russian oil companies. Russia has invested over $19 billion in the Iraqi energy sector. LUKOIL, Gazprom Neft and Rosneft account for the bulk of this investment,

Cultural, humanitarian, science and educational ties continue to develop intensively. We are maintaining our good tradition. Thousands of Iraqi citizens study at Russian universities. As a positive example, I would like to note the established practice of organising professional upgrade courses for employees of the Iraqi Foreign Ministry at the Diplomatic Academy of the Foreign Ministry. The academy has already trained over 450 Iraqi diplomats.

On the whole, our bilateral relations have an impressive potential for advancing our collaboration still further. In this connection, we highly value the effective work of the Russian-Iraqi Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation.

I would like to express confidence that relations between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Iraq will continue to develop steadily in the spirit of lasting friendship between our nations.

I hope that you enjoy the exhibition.