After years of frozen cooperation, Iraq seeks improving relationship with Russia

Iraq is seeking ways to improve mutual agreements that existed with the Soviet Union in the past, as stated by Ibrahim Jaafari, Foreign minister of Iraq.

He stated, "Many accords ceased to be in effect due to a freeze in cooperation on these agreements and memorandums of understanding. We are now exploring ways to possibly restart these agreements and memorandums of understanding between our countries."
Last week, top Iraqi diplomats travelled to Moscow in order to discuss outlooks for mending Russian-Iraqi ties with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. Jaafari said he had brought a delegation of deputy ministers of electricity and oil.

He also said that his nation was looking to reenergize cooperation on trade and construction. Iraq hopes that Russian energy companies will help balance slumping oil prices with increased crude output and electricity production, Iraq's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Jaafari said.
Jaafari also mentioned, "Iraq has underscored the importance of maxing out investment into the oil sector to set off the loss arising specifically from sliding oil prices. A slump in oil prices can be counterbalanced by increased crude oil output, so we are looking for companies that will help us export more oil. And Russian companies are a real help."

The Iraqi economy has been in tatters since the 2003 US invasion that destroyed parts of its infrastructure and deposed Iraqi long-time leader Saddam Hussein.