Kurdistan
Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani (right) receiving Estonian President Alar Karis on January 17, 2024. Photo: Kurdistan Region Presidency
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani on Wednesday received Estonian President Alar Karis in Erbil, where the two discussed collaboration in the fields of security and digitalization.
Barzani received Karis, the first ever Estonian president to visit the Kurdistan Region at Erbil International Airport.
In a post on X on Thursday, Karis expressed appreciation for the security cooperation between Estonia and the Kurdistan Region, thanking the latter for hosting Estonian soldiers, and stressing how strong collaboration in the field of digitalization “paves the way for our more intense bilateral cooperation."
Barzani received Karis, the first ever Estonian president to visit the Kurdistan Region at Erbil International Airport.
In a post on X on Thursday, Karis expressed appreciation for the security cooperation between Estonia and the Kurdistan Region, thanking the latter for hosting Estonian soldiers, and stressing how strong collaboration in the field of digitalization “paves the way for our more intense bilateral cooperation."
Met President Nechirvan Barzani. Appreciate our security cooperation. Thanks for hosting our soldiers; 🇪🇪 actively engages internationally. Impressive to see Erbil developing so fast. Strong collaboration in digitalization paves the way for our more intense bilateral cooperation pic.twitter.com/77Dkvi5BRq
— Alar Karis (@AlarKaris) January 18, 2024
In the meeting with President Barzani, Karis highlighted that “digital cooperation has been a driving force for bilateral relations, creating opportunities to expand collaboration into other areas,” according to a Thursday statement from the Estonian Presidency which also noted that Estonian company Aktors has “developed an information system for the Sulaymaniyah court in Kurdistan and aims to extend it to other courts.”
President Barzani said on X he thanked Karis for “his country’s contribution and support to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in the fight against terrorism.”
Karis arrived in Baghdad on Tuesday, where he was received by Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid.
Estonia has been a member of the US-led global coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) since 2016. The country deployed a unit of 110 members to Erbil in April, in order to support efforts ranging from base defense to rapid response, to providing security for advisors during activities outside the Erbil airbase.
In August, Estonia's Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur met with President Barzani and Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) Prime Minister Masrour Barzani in Erbil, discussing military cooperation between the two sides.
Ahead of Pevkur’s visit Brita Kikas, the Estonian foreign ministry’s media advisor, told Rudaw that the Kurdistan Region has been Tallinn’s most successful cooperation partner in the information and communication (ICT) department since 2014.
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