ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Russia’s war on Ukraine has impacted the trade volume with Iraq, a Ukrainian diplomat in Iraq told Rudaw, adding that his country is looking for new forms of economic engagement with both Iraq and the Kurdistan Region.
“Before invasion of Russia to Ukraine in 2022, we had quite positive trade, which was more than half billion dollars,” Deputy Chief of Mission of the Ukrainian embassy to Iraq Oleksandr Buravchenkov told Rudaw’s Nwenar Fatih.
According to Buravchenkov, the trade between the two countries has lost three times its volume due to the war, noting that construction materials were among the most hard-hit sectors.
“One of the valuable products was metal, reinforcement bar for constructions...now it's stopped,” he said.
Buravchenkov said that the number of Ukrainian companies is not a lot in Iraq, however, very famous Ukrainian enterprises have partners in Iraq as well as offices in Erbil, commending the Kurdish capital's security and importance for fostering business activities.
“Erbil is a secure place for business that is [where] Ukrainian partners prefer to cooperate with partners from Iraq,” he said.
The efforts to revive the trade relationship are ongoing between the two countries, according to Buravchenkov, who stated that the Ukrainian International Chamber of Commerce was “interested in promoting bilateral trade to restore the former volume of our trade.”
“We are also looking for new forms of [economic] activity ... it is also important to bring to Iraq and Kurdistan Region,” he said, stressing the importance of diversifying economic engagement between the two countries.
The Ukrainian diplomat noted that what sets Ukrainian companies apart is their employment of locals. The majority of the workers and employees are local from both the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.
“What is necessary to underline is this is not simply business of Ukrainian companies; the majority of workers, employees, and engineers are Iraqis, particularly from Kurdistan [Region],” he said.
Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but Iraq has so far steered away from taking sides in the conflict or publicly condemning Moscow. In March 2022, Iraq abstained from voting against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in a United Nations resolution, showing Baghdad’s willingness to maintain its relations with Moscow.
Iraq and the Kurdistan Region share close economic ties with Russia as several Russian oil companies operate both in the Region and in oilfields in southern Iraq. The two countries first established diplomatic relations in 1944.
In June 2021, the International Chamber of Commerce of Ukraine opened an office in Erbil in hopes to promote and strengthen the international trade relations and cooperation between Iraq and the Kurdistan Region and Ukraine and other international partners.
