Russia and Iraq will “build up [their] cooperation and partnership” on military and economic issues in an effort to expand Soviet-era partnerships between the two countries, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov declared Monday.
“We will continue to develop and build up this cooperation and partnership, the foundations of which we laid during the second half of the 20th century,” Lavrov said Monday during a meeting with Iraqi Vice President Nouri al-Maliki.
Lavrov identified counterterrorism efforts as the top priority for the relationship, but the statement was laden with clues that the Russians hope to supplant the United States as a top power broker in the country. Lavrov credited Iran with helping “to eradicate the terrorist threat,” and the meeting suggests that Russia plans to expand Iran’s influence by strengthening the influence of Shia Iraqis who subscribe to the variant of Islam dominant in Iran.
“This visit to Russia, which is not your first, will certainly help to advance us further on this road,” Lavrov told Maliki.
Maliki is a former president of Iraq who was pressured to step aside by the Obama administration in 2014. Maliki was blamed by U.S. leaders for the Islamic State’s rampage across northern Iraq, because his authoritarian leadership awakened sectarian religious tensions and alienated vast sections of Iraqi society from the central government. He promoted Shia Iraqis who partner closely with Iranian leaders, alienating Sunni Iraqis to the point that they initially regarded ISIS as an improvement over the “oppress[ion]” of the Iraqi government.
“The 18 percent Sunni minority felt they could not trust the government,” retired U.S. Army General David Petraeus said in 2014. “They had a stake in the failure of the new Iraq rather than in its success.”
Maliki stepped aside when the United States intervened to stop ISIS, but he has remained a power player in national politics. And he made clear that he hopes Russia will offset American influence in Iraq. Maliki was quoted as saying that he wants Russia to help thwart a “foreign political entity” — an apparent reference to the United States — from having too much influence over Iraq.
“Maybe Iraq is prone to new political developments in light of regional interferences,” Maliki said Monday, per Rudaw, a Kurdish media outlet.
Lavrov promised to help, as he noted that the Russians and Iraqis have a history of partnership that dates back to the Soviet Union.
“At this difficult period of time, the Russian Federation is supporting the Iraqi government’s efforts to rebuild the economy and improve the security forces’ combat capability,” Lavrov told Maliki. “Our companies are working more actively together with their Iraqi partners, and we are developing our military-technical cooperation, which supports you in your fight against the extremists. We will continue to develop and build up this cooperation and partnership, the foundations of which we laid during the second half of the 20th century.”
