Foreign Minister Meets Swedish State Minister for Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari met on Friday May 30th 2008, with Mr. Frank Belfridge, Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs. During the meeting several local, regional and international topics were discussed in addition to issues of bilateral relations between the two countries and ways to consolidate and develop them.

The Minister thanked the Swedish Government for hosting the first conference to review the agreement of the International Compact with Iraq, stressing that the meeting was successful and highlighted international attention on the new Iraq, and explained that the review conference came in the midst of the improvement and development in the political and security situation in Iraq which was confirmed by most of the participating delegations , and expressed their strong desire to contribute to building the economy, reconstruction and investment in joint ventures.

Mr zebari added that Baghdad looks forward to the reopening of the Swedish embassy after the Swedish delegation’s visit and initial preparations for reopening the embassy. Mr Zebari spoke about domestic conditions and the Iraqi’s Government’s insistence on achieving its programs on various levels and Iraq’s desire to develop regional relations to new levels, stressing the keenness of Baghdad to build the best possible relations with the region on the basis of good neighborliness and non-interference in internal affairs, and through this the Foreign Ministry works on removing obstacles that may occur in the relations with neighboring countries.

On his part, Mr. Frank Belfridge expressed the Swedish government’s keenness to establish better relations with Baghdad and that 2008 will witness the reopening of his country’s embassy in Iraq.