During the visit of the Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army to Iraq on Thursday and Friday, the development of relations between the two countries, including in the military field, was discussed. Maj. Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah, Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army, held an extensive meeting with his Pakistani counterpart, Maj. Gen. Nadim Reza Nishan.
According to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense, the meeting was held at the official invitation of the Chief of Staff of the Iraqi Army. Talks with the Chief of Staff of the Pakistani Army and his accompanying delegation were a perspective of cooperation and coordination between the two countries.
According to the Iraqi Ministry of Defense; The Pakistani Army Chief of Staff praised the meeting, praising “the capabilities of the Iraqi Army and the great sacrifices and heroism it has made in fighting and defeating terrorist organizations.”
Pakistan’s military attache called on Iraqi army chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Abdul Amir Rashid Yarallah, on Monday and discussed military cooperation and commitment to providing military support to the Iraqi armed forces.
In 2014, Iraq purchased the Super Mushak trainer aircraft from Pakistan as part of improving defense relations between the two countries.
In 2003, before the outbreak of the second Gulf War, Pakistan announced that it was opposed to any military action against Iraq. Relations between the two nations normalized following the United States troop withdrawal from Iraq and in 2013, Pakistan and Iraq signed a defense pact.
The Chief of Staff of the Pakistan Army also visited the Iraqi University of Higher Military Education with his accompanying delegation.
Relations between Baghdad and Islamabad date back to before Pakistan’s independence from India and have religious, social, cultural, and political dimensions, and now the discussion of fighting terrorism and economics in the framework of the Silk Road plan has been added to it.
There are two Muslim countries in the religious field and Pakistani students in the seminaries of Najaf Ashraf are the second most populous foreign nationals after the Iranians. Ayatollah Bashir Najafi is one of the four religious authorities in Iraq. It is the Qadiriyya way, and every year a caravan of pilgrims comes to Baghdad to visit this Sunni shrine.
On the other hand, after Pakistan’s independence, relations between the two countries were formally tied to the Santo Pact, and since then, despite the ups and downs, these relations have always been far from media hype.
According to some experts; Now, the discussion of terrorism as an important security challenge between the two countries, along with the fate of the two sides in the Great Silk Road economic plan, as well as the two countries’ opposition to the normalization plan with the Zionist regime, has caused relations between Baghdad and Islamabad to increase.
