Bulgaria highly values its partnership with Iraq, as well as with the Autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Region, and has the ambition to further expand it in areas of mutual interest. This is what Head of State Rumen Radev said at a meeting with President of Kurdistan Region, Nechervan Idris Barzani, on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum. President Radev noted the good traditions in the bilateral relations with Iraq in the recent past and expressed this country's readiness to continue working to build on them in energy, economy, tourism and education.
Nechervan Barzani highlighted the policy of the Autonomous Region of Iraqi Kurdistan to assert itself as a factor of stability in the region, as well as its efforts to promote economic and trade ties with its partners.
Rumen Radev and Nechervan Barzani noted the possibility of supplying crude oil from Iraqi Kurdistan to Bulgaria, expanding the activities of Bulgarian tour operators in the autonomous region and promoting the city of Erbil as a tourist destination, as well as agriculture and food production as particularly promising areas of bilateral cooperation. The good results of the two business forums held in Sofia in May and October 2023 between the Bulgarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and local business representatives from Erbil and Mosul were also noted, as well as the Memorandum of Understanding signed between BCCI and the Erbil Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ECCI) in May last year.
Nechervan Barzani invited Rumen Radev to visit Iraq and Erbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, to continue the diplomatic dialogue at the highest level and outline new areas for the development of bilateral cooperation.