Upon his arrival at Cairo International Airport, Al-Sudani was received by his Egyptian counterpart, Mustafa Madbouly, where an official reception ceremony was held for him and the accompanying delegation, which includes the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Fouad Hussein, and the Minister of Trade, Atheer Dawood.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi met with Al-Sudani at the Ittihadiya Palace to discuss ways to strengthen relations between Cairo and Baghdad, according to the Egyptian presidential spokesman.
Files, most notably the economy
The director of the Al-Amsar Center for Strategic Studies, and the Iraqi political analyst, Raed Al-Azzawi, believes that the visit of the Iraqi Prime Minister to Cairo comes at an important time and is predominantly economic, through the following points:
- The Prime Minister of Iraq looks at Egypt and its role from a different perspective, because he believes that it is necessary to raise the volume of trade exchange between the two countries, with the participation of Egyptian companies in rehabilitating the infrastructure in Iraq and contributing to construction, construction and housing works.
- Al-Sudani seeks the participation of Egyptian companies in the rehabilitation of Iraqi refineries and oil transmission lines, and their participation in building electric power stations, with their long experience.
- Al-Sudani hopes to open up and build a strong tripartite partnership with Egypt, in addition to Jordan and the Gulf states, as an urgent necessity for the Iraqi government, which is open to the world, and wants Iraq to be in its rightful position away from political tensions.
- Egypt stood clearly and at the same distance from the political currents in Iraq, and it had a positive role in resolving many crises and bringing the views of the Iraqi powers closer, especially the Iraqi reconciliation conference that brought together the parties in 2005.
- The visit is important and historic and is expected to witness the signing of 21 agreements and memorandums of understanding, as well as the activation of the “oil for reconstruction” agreement, with Cairo’s strong participation in the rehabilitation of many cities and infrastructures in Iraq.
- On the security level, Cairo and Baghdad are coordinating in many files, and there is a continuous exchange of security information between the two sides and the extradition of those wanted by the security forces.
- The value of trade exchange between Egypt and Iraq increased to record $147.3 million during the first quarter of 2022, compared to $129.1 million during the same period in 2021, an increase of 14.1 percent, according to the Egyptian Statistics Authority data.
strategic relationship
For his part, the expert specializing in international relations, Ayman Samir, believes in his statements to “Sky News Arabia” that the relationship between Egypt and Iraq witnessed a major boom at the political level, after the Egyptian president made two visits to Iraq in 2021 to attend the tripartite Egyptian-Jordanian summit. Iraq, and the summit of Iraq’s neighboring countries, and he is the first Egyptian president to visit Iraq in 30 years, which inaugurates a new phase of bilateral relations.
Egypt believes that the stability of Iraq is an important part of Arab national security, according to Samir, who pointed out that the file of benefiting from the experiences of the two countries in combating terrorism will be present during the Sudanese visit, as Baghdad and Cairo believe that terrorism crosses borders and therefore cooperation must cross borders. .
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