Signal of Friendship

On January 24 Kyiv saw the ceremonial opening of the Embassy of the Republic of Iraq in Ukraine. Baghdad will be represented in Ukraine by Iraq’s charge d’affaires Hisham Ibrahim (in the photo). Speaking to journalists, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Deputy State Secretary Volodymyr Yelchenko characterized the opening of the embassy as an important event. He recalled in particular that the trade turnover between the two countries has been rising, reaching $140 million last year. As he put it, rehabilitating Iraqi energy facilities is one of the items of economic cooperation between Ukraine and Iraq. Moreover, Mr. Yelchenko said, Ukraine favors the gradual lifting of sanctions imposed on Iraq by the UN. Asked about Ukraine’s reaction to the likely US antiterrorist operation on the territory of Iraq, Mr. Yelchenko replied this would not happen. According to him, there is no evidence today of Iraq’s support for terrorist groups, including Al- Qaeda. In addition, in the Ukrainian diplomat’s opinion, there would be an extremely negative reaction to this kind of operation by both Arab and European states, reports UNIAN.