Canada wants relationship based on bilateral interests, trade with Iraq: Ambassador

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Canada wants a relationship based on bilateral interests and trade, its top diplomat in Iraq said on Tuesday.

“When we look at Iraq, it’s probably the wealthiest country in the world in which we have an assistance program. It’s an upper-middle-income country. So we treat the post-Daesh as a transition period and as I said for the last five years we’ve been investing quite a lot of money about five hundred million dollars in 2016 along with defense cooperation,” said Ambassador of Canada to Iraq Ulric Shannon in an interview with Rudaw’s Bestoon Khalid during the Middle East Research Institute (MERI) forum in Erbil.

“For us, the future is not going to be one where there’s a recipient and donor relationship with Iraq or with Kurdistan. We look to building a more normal but bilateral relationship, which is based on common interest, trade, investment and people-to-people linkages,” said the top diplomat. 

“If we were still here as a donor five years from now that’s because we failed. We failed to manage the transition to a normal bilateral relationship,” he added.

Shannon was appointed ambassador to the Republic of Iraq in December 2019. He is the second Canadian resident ambassador appointed to the country following a 27-year hiatus between 1991 and 2018.

Updated at 9:35 pm