India is hoping to give a fresh impetus to its age-old ties with Iraq, with external affairs minister Salman Khurshid headed for Baghdad on a two-day visit beginning June 19. His visit, the first high-level visit to Iraq by an Indian leader in at least a decade, will be aimed at re-establishing the political dialogue at the senior level with the Iraqi leadership.
On the strategic front, with India’s energy needs growing, oil will be high on the discussion agenda during Mr Khurshid’s visit. Iraq is now India’s second largest supplier of oil after Saudi Arabia, having replaced Iran in that position and become a “critical partner” of India.
Importantly, the two countries are also working to revive the Joint Commission for Economic and Technical Cooperation which last met in New Delhi in May 2007, co-chaired by the oil ministers of the two countries. The meeting is likely in mid-July in Baghdad.
Iraq has traditionally been a close friend and significant partner of India economically, politically and strategically. India has had good bilateral ties with successive political regimes of Iraq over the decades, including that of Saddam Hussain who was overthrown in 2003.
Mr Khurshid’s visit will mark an important and substantive step in engaging with the present leadership of Iraq. He will be meeting his counterpart Hoshyar Zebari and is also expected to call on Iraqi deputy prime minister Hussein Al-Shahristani, who also deals with energy-related issues.
As India increasingly looks to Iraq to meet its oil needs, sources described it as an “interesting partnership that is evolving”. They noted that Iraq needs an assured market for its increasing crude production — it has set itself a target of 7 million barrels per day by 2017 from the current 3 million barrels per day.
India, on the other hand, is in search of a long-term partnership with a major oil producer.