Iraqi foreign minister in Manila

MANILA, Philippines - Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari is in Manila for a three-day official visit to strengthen bilateral cooperation, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) announced yesterday.

Zebari is visiting the country from May 31 to June 2 upon the invitation of Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario.

Del Rosario and his counterpart will discuss wide-ranging bilateral issues, including the convening of the 7th Philippines-Iraq Joint Commission Meeting this year.

Del Rosario extended the invitation to Zebari during his visit to Iraq last Jan. 29.

“The Foreign Minister’s visit is an important milestone in Philippine-Iraq relations as it is the first visit of an Iraqi foreign minister to the Philippines,” the DFA said.

The visit to the Philippines by an Iraqi foreign minister is expected to boost friendly bilateral ties between the two countries.

Relations between Iraq and the Philippines have been strengthened after the visit of Del Rosario to Iraq on Jan. 29, 2012.

During his visit, Del Rosario invited Zebari to conduct an official visit to the Philippines that is an opportunity for the two countries to discuss issues from the overall bilateral relations and treat the matter separately to allow full focus on advancing the important bilateral agenda between the Philippines and Iraq.

Iraq and the Philippines established diplomatic relations on Jan. 12, 1975 and the Philippine embassy in Baghdad opened in September 1980.

The Philippines moved its embassy from Baghdad to the Jordanian capital Amman in 2003. Iraq closed its embassy in Manila in September 2003, but diplomatic relations between the two countries continued.

The Philippine embassy in Baghdad reopened last November.

The DFA said 279 Filipino workers are registered with the Philippine embassy in Baghdad and 300 in the Kurdistan Autonomous Region.

The Philippine government’s deployment ban over Iraq’s Kurdistan region had already been lifted.

The DFA said the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) issued Memorandum Circular No. 4 Series of 2012 on April 27 lifting the ban.

The DFA said in November that the Philippines would revisit the ban on the deployment of Filipino workers to Iraq based on an assessment of the situation in that country after the pullout of US forces.

The government’s policy on Iraq, the DFA said, may change depending on the situation in that country.

Despite the Philippines’ travel and labor deployment ban to Iraq, the government failed to stop the recruitment of Filipino workers in US military camps there.