Iraq and Turkey have signed a deal to implement a water cooperation agreement that they reached last year. Under the terms of the agreement, Iraq will use revenue from its oil sales to Turkey to finance water infrastructure projects built by Turkish companies. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers, both of which flow from Turkey, are significant sources of Iraq’s water supplies and water scarcity has in the past been a point of tension between the two countries.
As Jonathan Fenton-Harvey wrote in WPR in February, Turkey is trying to increase its influence in Iraq as part of its regional competition with Iran. In addition to their cooperation on water infrastructure, Turkey and Iraq last year pledged further defense and security cooperation, and the two countries have also established a “Joint Security Coordination Center in Baghdad for intelligence-sharing and counterterrorism purposes,” Fenton-Harvey wrote.
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