Iraq and UK agree trade package worth up to £12.3 billion

Iraq and Britain have agreed on a trade package worth up to 12.3 billion pounds ($14.98 billion) and a bilateral defense deal, the Iraqi and British prime ministers said in a joint statement. 

The deal, which envisages a more than 10-fold increase in total bilateral trade in 2024, was announced after Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shaya al-Sudani met with his British counterpart Keir Starmer.

It includes a £1.2 billion project that will use British-made electricity transmission systems to interconnect the power grids between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, as well as a £500 million plan to upgrade the Al-Qayyarah airbase in northern Iraq.

The statement said the agreement between the two countries also includes a project for a UK-led consortium to build water infrastructure to help provide clean water to Iraq’s arid south and west.

The project will cost up to 5.3 billion pounds of British exports. Sudani and Starmer also signed a defense agreement that “lays the foundation for a new era in security cooperation.”