China ready to strengthen trade, cooperation with Iraq: Spox

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - China is ready to strengthen trade and cooperation on all levels with Iraq and the “regional governments,” its foreign ministry spokesperson told Rudaw on Wednesday.

“China has always respected sovereignty and independence [of Iraq] and protected it. It is also ready to strengthen trade and cooperation with the central government and the regional governments on all levels,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told Rudaw’s Mahdi Faraj in a Beijing press briefing. 

"We will continue to make positive progress in the China-Iraq strategic partnership," he added.

China opened its consulate in Erbil in 2014 and has become one of Iraq’s largest trade partners in the region. Trade between China and Iraq reached around $50 billion last year, according to Shoresh Khalid, Iraq’s ambassador to Beijing.

Khalid told Rudaw in October that trade relations between Iraq and China are set to grow even further “especially with the Kurdistan Region which has a good amount of Chinese companies.”

In recent years, China has stepped up its diplomatic efforts in the Middle East, as it increasingly becomes a key actor in regional affairs to promote an alternative to US influence. In March, Beijing brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran to end a seven year hiatus in diplomatic ties.