Receiving Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Baghdad, Salih stressed Iraq’s keenness to also enhance relations with the two Arab countries in various fields.

Iraq is keen to expand relations with Egypt and Jordan through the agreed upon trilateral understandings and frameworks in the political, security, and economic fields, Salih said.

Concerning regional issues, Salih said there is an urgent need to ease tensions and defuse the crises in the region and to employ dialogue in resolving the outstanding issues.

This should pave the way for a regional cooperation framework that is based on economic and commercial cooperation to face joint challenges linked to security, economy and climate change, the Iraqi president added.

Iraq’s security, stability and geographical location among its neighbours is an indispensable element for the security of the region, Salih said.

Shoukry and Safadi conveyed the greetings of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and King Abdullah II of Jordan to Salih during the meeting, a statement by the Egyptian Ministry of Foreign Affairs read.

The ministers stressed their keenness to enhance relations with Iraq on the bilateral levels and within the framework of their trilateral cooperation mechanism as it constitutes a model of economic partnership and supports the joint Arab work mechanisms.

Shoukry and Safadi started an official visit to the Iraqi capital on Monday, during which they also met with Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi and Parliament Speaker Mohammed Al-Halboosi.

Their visit comes as part of the efforts exerted by the three countries over the past years to enhance the frameworks of trilateral cooperation and support stability in Iraq.

Egypt, Iraq and Jordan have intensified their meetings over the past few years to address enhancing strategic relations and expanding trilateral cooperation in several fields, including energy, industry, agriculture, transport, food security, infrastructure and investment.

The leaders of the three countries have met four times in less than three years, the first of which was in Cairo in March 2019, to discuss implementing trilateral strategic projects.

During their latest summit in Baghdad in June last year, the three leaders pledged to reinforce coordination between their security and intelligence apparatuses in countering terrorism and cyber security.

They also laid special emphasis on ambitious plans to build a power grid, a gas network, an oil pipeline and a land route that would connect their three countries and facilitate their integration.

Egypt, a country with an electricity surplus of more than 25 percent, is planning to export electricity to Iraq through its electricity grid link with Jordan. Egypt and Jordan agreed in November last year to double the capacity of their electricity grid link to 1GW.