ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani headed to Ankara on Thursday, where he will meet Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to discuss a range of topics, including bilateral relations between the two sides, according to a presidential statement.
President Barzani and Erdogan will discuss Turkey's relations with Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, regional developments, and topics of common interests, according to the Kurdistan Region Presidency's statement.
According to Turkish Presidency's agenda, President Barzani will be received by Erdogan at 4pm at the Presidential Complex in Ankara.
The two leaders' last meeting was on April 11 on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkey.
President Barzani's visit to Ankara and his scheduled meeting with Erdogan comes weeks after the resumption of the Kurdistan Region’s oil exports to the international market through Turkery's Ceyhan Port following a landmark deal with Baghdad and international oil companies. Exports had been halted in March 2023 after a Paris-based arbitration court ruled that Ankara had violated a 1973 pipeline agreement by allowing Erbil to independently export oil beginning in 2014.
The resumption of Kurdish oil exports has been widely welcomed, with leaders hoping that it will be followed by a lasting agreement.
Iraq's Ambassador to Turkey Majid al-Lachmawi told Rudaw on Wednesday that the resumption of Kurdish oil exports to Turkey's Ceyhan Port is so important that it could contribute to lessening fuel shortages in the neighboring country.
The Kurdistan Region accounts for the majority of Turkish trade and investments in Iraq. Turkish companies make up more than half the foreign companies in the Kurdistan Region, where thousands of Turkish businessmen, investors and workers are doing business.
The trade volume between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey stands at over five billion dollars a year.