PM Barzani receives Dutch Minister of Defense

Shafaq News / The Prime Minister of the Kurdistan Region, Masrour Barzani, received on Tuesday the Minister of Defense of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mrs. Kaisa Olongren.

A statement by Barzani's office said that the Dutch defense minister "touched upon the strong friendly relations between the Netherlands and the Kurdistan Region, affirmed the continuation of security, military and coordination, and her country's support for the Peshmerga."

The statement quoted PM Barzani saying, "We commended our turn on the Dutch's continued support to the Kurdistan Region in the framework of the international alliance, and expressed our appreciation to the Netherlands for being one of the countries supporting the plans and work programme of the ninth ministerial formation in the field of economic diversity and interest in the agricultural sector."

"The main focus of the meeting included the importance of maintaining security and stability in the Kurdistan region, condemning attacks on the Kurdistan region, and emphasizing the need to respect and protect the sovereignty of Iraq and the Kurdistan region and to stop attacks and assaults."

The Prime Minister added, "We stressed that the Kurdistan Region will always remain a worker for security and stability in the region, and would like to establish friendly relations with neighboring countries on the basis of good neighborliness, mutual respect and shared interests."

"As we discussed at the meeting, progress being made on unification of Peshmerga forces, existing reforms in the Peshmerga Ministry and countering ISIS terrorist threats", he concluded.