President Erdogan receives Iraqi PM al-Zaidi in Ankara

Shafaq News-Ankara

TurkishPresident Recep Tayyip Erdogan welcomed Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi withan official ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara on Tuesday, inal-Zaidi's first official visit to Turkiye since he took office in May.

Al-Zaidi saidthe talks would cover investment, water resources, regional security and majorinfrastructure projects, adding that the visit was intended to developpolitical and economic relations between the two countries, and that the agendaincluded the Development Road, a planned road-and-rail corridor designed tolink Iraq's southern Faw port to Turkiye and onward to Europe.

Turkishpolitical analyst Gok Oglu told Shafaq News that the Development Road topped thediscussions and that Ankara was seeking practical outcomes on water, securityand energy rather than a visit confined to protocol, as “some earlier visitshad been.”

According to Oglu, the two sides formed joint technical committees to follow up on thewater file, and the security file saw progress toward the results bothgovernments sought. The talks also addressed restarting the Kirkuk-Ceyhan oilpipeline, which carries crude from the northern Iraqi province of Kirkuk toTurkiye's Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, and that recent regional developmentshad increased the strategic and economic importance Ankara attaches toadvancing the Development Road inside Iraq. ...