Turkey, Iraq to hold high-level talks on security, energy

ANKARA: Senior officials from Turkey and Iraq will meet in Baghdad on Thursday to discuss energy cooperation,aswellassecurityanddefencematers, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday.

Ties between the neighbours have been rocky in recent years as Ankara has ramped up crossborder operations against Kurdish PKK rebels based in northern Iraq’s mountainous regions. Iraq has said the operations violate its sovereignty, but Ankara says it must protect itself and has warned of a new incursion.

The two are also at odds over the resumption of oil exports from a crude oil pipeline running from Iraq through Turkey that Ankara says is ready to operate but Baghdad has yet to resume its operations.

Speaking at a briefing in Ankara, ministry spokesman Oncu Keceli said Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Defence Minister Yasar Guler, and Ibrahim Kalin, head of Turkey’s MIT intelligence agency, would hold talks with their counterparts in Baghdad in a “security summit”.

“Developing a common understanding in counterterrorism and concrete steps that can be taken in that regard will be on the table,” Keceli said. “The PKK being defined as a common security threat by Iraqi authorities is a sign that the desire to batle the PKK is developing in Iraq and we welcome this.”

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the insurgency. Keceli said the resumption of oil flows from the Iraq-turkey pipeline would be discussed during the meetings.

Turkey halted flows on the pipeline, Iraq’s northern oil export route, ater an arbitration ruling by the International Chamber of Commerce ordered Ankara to pay Baghdad damages for unauthorised exports between 2014 and 2018.

Ankara later started maintenance work on the pipeline that contributes about 0.5% of global crude supply. The two countries agreed to wait until a maintenance assessment on the pipeline was complete to restart flows while still engaging in a legal batle on arbitration awards.