LONDON – Kurdish Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani is on his first official visit to the United Kingdom to bolster relations with London, already an important political and economic partner for Erbil.
Barzani met Monday with British Foreign Secretary William Hague to discuss bilateral relations and current political issues, according to a statement from the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG).
“The Prime Minister´s visit is a chance to celebrate the warm relations between the UK and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, with links in areas as diverse as trade, education, and culture, and to reaffirm the UK´s desire to remain the Region´s partner of choice on all of these issues,” said Hague, speaking after the meeting.
Barzani, for his part, expressed full support for the KRG’s robust and mutually beneficial partnership with the United Kingdom.
The KRG statement said that Barzani and Hague discussed political developments in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. That included the pressing matter of the Syrian refugee crisis, including the role of the Kurdistan Region as a safe haven for the refugees.
The Kurdistan Region has some 250,000 refugees from the civil war in Syria, plus other refugees fleeing the violence in the rest of the country.
A statement from the UK Government said both sides also discussed the recent elections in Iraq, and the next steps towards the formation of a new federal government.
“I encouraged the Prime Minister, and other Kurdish parties, to remain fully engaged in this process,” said Hague.
“I congratulated the Prime Minister on the progress that has been made in the Kurdistan Region over recent years, and the relative stability and security that has been achieved despite the violence in other parts of Iraq, and in neighboring Syria,” he added.
In relation to the formation of the regional Kurdish cabinet, Barzani emphasized the value of including the main Kurdish political parties in the new government, to reflect a truly inclusive and representative government.
The talks, which touched on trade, investment, cultural and educational exchanges, also included emphasis on the importance of commencing direct flights between Erbil and London.
Barzani also met London Mayor Boris Johnson, the Minister of State for International Development, Alan Duncan, and the British Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, Robert Goodwill.
Johnson said that the visit would serve as a good opportunity to further relations between the cities of London and Erbil.
Barzani extended to Mayor Johnson an official invitation to visit Erbil with a delegation of companies interested in operating in Kurdistan. The premier said that British companies with expertise in tourism, infrastructure development, oil and gas, financial services, and other sectors would find great opportunities in Kurdistan, as would investors.
In his meeting with Duncan, Barzani discussed the situation of the internally-displaced persons who have fled to the Kurdistan Region from other provinces of Iraq. They also discussed the Syrian refugees in Kurdistan. Barzani asked Duncan to encourage British and international charitable and non-governmental organizations to increase their operations in Kurdistan in order to provide refugees and internally displaced persons with humanitarian aid in coordination with the KRG.
The amount of external aid currently provided does not match the needs of refugees, as the Iraqi federal government has contributed little aid. The KRG has provided millions of dollars in assistance and in-kind support, including housing hundreds of thousands of refugees, an effort warmly noted by Duncan, said the KRG statement.
The UK was one of the first countries to open a consulate in Erbil 10 years ago, thousands of Kurdish students are studying in the UK and British companies have been very active attending exhibitions and fairs in Kurdistan.
Among the most significant political issues for the Iraqi Kurds was the official recognition last year by the British Parliament of Saddam Hussein’s atrocities against the Kurds as genocide.
