Minister of State for External Affairs, MJ Akbar, on Monday held talks with Iraqi leadership in Baghdad and sought its help to rescue 39 Indians kidnapped two years back in Mosul.
Akbar held extensive talks with President Fuad Masum and other top Iraqi leaders in Baghdad on a range of issues including threat from Islamic State. The Iraqi leadership assured full cooperation and support in the matter, sources said.
The two sides discussed the entire gamut of bilateral engagement, including in spheres of trade, investment, energy security, defence and security and counter terrorism. “The two sides acknowledged the grave threat posed by international terrorism and its sponsors to international peace and security as also the very architecture of nation state. They conveyed strong support to each other in their common fight against the menace of terrorism,” sources said.
Akbar conveyed India’s support for the unity and territorial integrity of Iraq and conveyed New Delhi’s abiding commitment to the emergence of a stable, peaceful, united and democratic Iraq, which was in the interest of regional and global peace and security.
The Minister conveyed New Delhi’s willingness to partner in the reconstruction of Iraq as also for continued assistance through India’s well acknowledged capacity-building programmes under Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC).