On 6 August 2021, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Latvia, Edgars Rinkēvičs, had a telephone call with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq, Dr Fuad Hussein. The Ministers discussed bilateral cooperation, cooperation between the European Union and Iraq, as well as current migration challenges at the EU’s border with Belarus.
Edgars Rinkēvičs confirmed that Iraq’s security and prosperity, being closely related to stability in a wider Middle Eastern region, are important to Latvia. With this in mind, Latvia has long been providing support for the strengthening of Iraq’s security.
During the conversation, Edgars Rinkēvičs, presented Latvia’s perspective of the illegal migration pressure exerted by Belarus on its EU neighbours and called on the government of Iraq to make every effort to prevent the Iraqi citizens from illegally entering Europe through Lithuania. The Latvian Foreign Minister thanked Iraq for its current expeditious measures to restrict illegal migration. The Foreign Ministers agreed on further cooperation in the matters concerning the return of irregular migrants.