Iraqi Prime Minister, Haidar Al-Abadi, said on Saturday that his planned visit to Kuwait aims at boosting relations between the two countries.
Speaking at a press conference, Al-Abadi stressed that his country’s relations with the Kuwait have been developed “significantly,” adding that the main objective of his visit is to maintain this “developed” relationship with the Kuwait government.
Al-Abadi is scheduled to begin an official tour this week to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iran.
He added that he will discuss a number of topics during his visit to Kuwait, including to compensation of the Iraqi invasion in 1990, which Iraq has been postponing.
On the Iraq donors’ conference, which is scheduled to be held in Kuwait, The Prime Minster explained that the recent decline in global oil prices was the main reason behind the event’s postponement.
Kuwait approved $100 million grant to Iraq in April
Kuwait late April approved a $100 million grant for Iraq to support humanitarian and reconstruction projects in areas retaken from Daesh militants.
The grant was the first Kuwaiti financial assistance to Iraq since Baghdad’s occupation of the emirate from August 1990 to February 1991, ordered by then-President Saddam Hussein.
“The grant agreement is an encouraging start for further future cooperation between Iraq and Kuwait,” the reconstruction fund chief, Mustafa Al-Hiti, said in a statement.
The fund aims to rebuild cities and territories recaptured from Daesh, the ultra-hard-line jihadist group which declared a “caliphate” over parts of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
The war with Daesh escalated as crude prices tumbled, curtailing the Iraqi government budget as it relies almost exclusively on oil sales.
Saddam was toppled by the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. Iraq and Kuwait are now close allies against terrorism.
