Iraq and Turkey resume security talks in Ankara

Closer co-operation between the neighbouring countries follows Turkish President Erdogan's first visit to Iraq in 13 years in April

Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met in Baghdad earlier this year. AFP

Senior Iraqi and Turkish officials began talks in Turkey’s capital Ankara on Wednesday to push forward work on security, trade and diplomatic agreements previously signed between the two neighbouring countries, officials said.

The meetings include the fourth round of recent talks focused on security issues between the two countries, to be attended by Iraq’s Defence Minister and Qassem Al Araji, the National Security Adviser, as well as Turkey's Defense Minister Yasar Guler and intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalin, according to an Iraqi official and a Turkish Foreign Ministry statement. A separate joint planning group, co-chaired by the Turkish and Iraqi Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Hakan Fidan and Fuad Hussein, will also meet for the first time on Thursday, according to a Turkish diplomatic official.

The neighbouring countries aim to further work on implementing 27 agreements signed between them during President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Iraq in April – his first trip to the country in 13 years. The deals focus on a wide range of issues from security to boosting trade, agricultural and cultural ties, as the countries aim to improve relations.

"The meeting will review the status of the agreements signed during the visits of our President [to Iraq]," a Turkish diplomatic official said.

Turkey sees combating the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) as key in its relations with Iraq, and “security issues at all levels” are on the table in Ankara this week, according to a second Iraqi official, who declined to elaborate due to the sensitivity of the issue. The PKK, designated as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and the US, has waged a 40-year insurgency against the Turkish state and is now based in Iraq’s mountainous north.

The security-focused meeting, "will discuss the possibilities of strengthening the understanding we have developed with the Iraqi side in the field of security, with additional concrete steps," a Turkish diplomatic official said. "The strengthening of the legal framework of this joint struggle is also among the objectives of the meeting."

Ankara carries out frequent cross-border military operations against the militants and has asked Iraq for closer co-operation, an issue complicated by sympathy for the PKK and affiliated groups among some Iraqis. The government in Baghdad listed the PKK as “outlawed” earlier this year but did not designate it a terrorist organisation. Turkey is closely watching the implementation of Baghdad's ban on the organisation, a Turkish diplomatic official said.

Iraq is one of Turkey’s main export markets for consumer goods and both sides are keen to progress with work on a major infrastructure project nicknamed the “Development Road". Mr Erdogan's visit to Baghdad led to Turkey and Iraq signing a four-way agreement with Qatar and the UAE to co-operate on the $17 billion road and rail link. It will connect Iraq’s southern seaport in Basra to Turkey when completed, enabling trade from a key naval artery to Turkey's land route to Europe.

Iraq has for years pushed its upstream neighbour to come to a clearer agreement over transboundary water flows on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, at a time of severe drought in the country. President Abdul Latif Rashid has previously demanded that Iraq receive a "fair share" of water from the two rivers.