200 Russian Companies To Attend Baghdad Fair

Two hundred Russian companies would be expected to attend the Baghdad international fair, due to open November 1, reports Iraq's INA news agency. Talking to the agency, a high-ranking diplomat, who serves with the Russian embassy in Baghdad, noted that Russia's large-scale participation in this fair reflected its striving to expand bilateral cooperation in various economic spheres. Russia tops the list of 75 countries cooperating with Iraq within the framework of the relevant UN-backed oil-for-food program. The Russian-Iraqi trade turnover has reached the $4.2-billion mark, Iraq's Trade Minister Muhammad Mahdi al-Salih noted some time ago. In his words, the bilateral trade turnover will continue to swell in line with a long-term Russian-Iraqi cooperation program. Russian companies now implement a number of Iraqi projects worth $40 billion within that program's framework.