Shafaq News / Iraq's Prime Minister, Muhammad Shia al-Sudani, affirmed on Friday that the government will focus on developing the economy and providing services.

In his speech at the Arab-Chinese Summit for Cooperation and Development, today, Friday, Al-Sudani praised the importance of holding this summit and said: "It comes within a deep understanding of the international arena, so that we can adopt a balanced and complementary foreign policy that serves the interests of our peoples and countries and promotes stability and prosperity."

He added, "Iraq supports all efforts aimed at strengthening the steady relations of cooperation and friendship between the Arab countries and China," noting that "this summit is an opportunity for economic integration in our region by strengthening cooperation with China, and benefiting from Chinese experiences in various fields, without forgetting the experiences of Combating poverty and epidemics, developing saline-water agriculture, and efforts to combat desertification.

He pointed out, "Iraq has long-standing relations with China that have gained a growing amount of interest and development over the past years at the governmental and popular levels," pointing out that "Iraq is looking forward to strengthening partnership within the Belt and Road Initiative, and within the fields of investment, energy and infrastructure projects."

Al-Sudani stressed that "our steps in the next stage will focus on several areas that begin with the development of the economy and the provision of services, and I invite you today to economic openness to Iraq, as it represents a promising environment for investment, and possesses important human and material success ingredients. Secondly: not allowing Iraq to be a headquarters or a corridor for aggression against neighboring countries." At the same time, we reject the aggression on our lands, and everyone must respect the sovereignty of Iraq.”

The Prime Minister continued, "Our country was subjected to a brutal terrorist attack, which threatened the entire world, but the Iraqis stood in self-defense, the region and the world, and made great sacrifices, and victory was achieved, and we know that the countries of the region and the world will not forget that honorable battle of ours, and will stand with us in our renaissance with gratitude and loyalty."

He pointed out, in a third point, that "our region is the heart of the world and the link between the continents of Asia, Africa and Europe, and occupies a distinguished strategic position in the field of energy, and Iraq is the center of this region historically and culturally, and among the most important oil-exporting countries in the world."

The Prime Minister affirmed Iraq's keenness on the stability of the global economic system through its role as a founding member of OPEC, noting that "we aim with our partners to achieve stability in oil production and prices in a way that achieves the balanced interests of producers and consumers."

Al-Sudani renewed Iraq's firm and principled commitment and standing by the Palestinian people and defending their right to their national state, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital," stressing at the same time that "our region represents an increasing weight in a changing world, and together we must shape our future in it, in a way that achieves our positive openness." On all friends on the one hand, and our insistence on imposing respect for our values and privacy on the other hand.”