Rudaw.net | Khazan Jangiz

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani met with French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday in Paris at Elysee Palace, where the leaders discussed topics of mutual interest.

“I am delighted to have met my friend President @EmmanuelMacron today in Paris. I reiterated my appreciation for France’s continued support to the Kurdistan Region,” Barzani said in a tweet following the meeting in the French capital.

“We discussed bilateral ties, pressing Iraqi and regional issues, as well as opportunities and challenges ahead,” added the President.

The Kurdish leader touched down in the Paris on Monday night upon an official visit from Macron.

Both leaders talked about the latest developments in Kurdistan Region, Iraq and the region as well as the stability of Iraq and the threat posed by the Islamic State (ISIS) group, according to a statement released later from Barzani’s office. 

Macron told Barzani of Pope Francis' visit to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region in early March that “he had heard the visit made the pope happy and that he had described it as an important event.

"President Nechirvan Barzani stressed that the pope’s visit to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region has left a positive impact on all ethnic and religious groups in the country,” he added. 

The resurgence of ISIS, relations between the Iraqi Army and Peshmerga, Article 140, IDPs, refugees and the conditions of Yazidis and Christians in Shingal and Nineveh Plains were among the topics discussed in the meeting, according to the statement.

“President Macron agreed [with Barzani] that Daesh [ISIS] still poses a serious threat and that the international community will continue to fight it.”
 
The two leaders last met in Baghdad in September 2020. Tuesday was the fourth meeting between the leaders and Barzani’s third official visit to France. The two had a meeting in December 2017 in Paris before Barzani became president in June 2019, followed by another visit in July that year.

The Kurdish President also met with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Tuesday evening. 

“Both sides stressed the need for bilateral cooperation in developing ties between Iraq and the Kurdistan Region with France, and for the continuation of the International Coalition’s mission to assist Iraq in the fight against ISIS,” reads a statement from Barzani's office about the meeting with the FM.

The visit comes on the 30th year anniversary of the Kurdish uprising in 1991 and the imposition of the no-fly zone over Kurdistan and southern Iraq the same year, which late French President Francois Mitterrand encouraged the UN Security Council to establish.

The relationship between the Kurds and France goes back to the 1980s. Danielle Mitterrand, first lady of France from 1981 to 1995, advocated for Kurds suffering under the regime of Saddam Hussein and was instrumental in campaigning for the no-fly zone that allowed the Kurdistan Region to develop its current autonomy. She was affectionately known as the “Mother of Kurds”, and inaugurated the first Kurdish parliament in 1992.

France was one of the first countries to open a consulate in the Kurdish capital of Erbil after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003 and played a critical role in helping Kurds both in Iraq and in Syria in the war against ISIS, including in supplying arms and training to the Kurdish forces. 

France also plans to increase agricultural exports to Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, according to the head of the economics department at the French consulate in Erbil, Muhammed Fazyi.

“According to the data we have, France currently has more than $3 billion worth of investments in Iraq, 30-35 percent of which is in the Kurdistan Region”  and there are over 35 French companies working in the Kurdistan Region, Fayzi told Rudaw on Tuesday.  

Updated at 20:30 with statement from Barzani's office about meeting with Macron, 22:30 with statement about meeting with Le Drian