Iraq's Prime Minister in Egypt for talks on co-operation agreements

Mohammed Shia Al Sudani is leading a high-level delegation of cabinet ministers

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani attends the Arab League summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in May. Reuters

Iraq's Prime Minister arrived in Cairo on Monday for a two-day visit in which he will meet Egyptian leaders and sign a host of co-operation agreements.

Mohammed Shia Al Sudani was received at Cairo airport by his Egyptian counterpart Mostafa Madbouly. He is scheduled to meet President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Tuesday.

Reflecting the economic focus of the visit, Mr Al Sudani is being accompanied by his ministers of trade, housing and electricity, the governor of the central bank, and the chairman of the National Investment Authority.

Egyptian officials said that among the key agreements to be signed on Tuesday is a plan to integrate Iraq with Egypt's power grid. This will allow the post-conflict nation to take advantage of the power surplus Egypt enjoys and to reduce the frequency and duration of Iraq's chronic power cuts.

Mr Al Sudani flew to Egypt hours after the Iraqi Parliament ratified the largest budget in the country’s history after months of political wrangling and four days of voting on individual articles.

The budget stands at 198.91 trillion Iraqi dinars ($153 billion), running with a deficit of 64.36 trillion dinars ($49.1 billion), and is focused in large part on upgrading the nation's collapsing infrastructure.

Egypt is eager for its public and private sectors to land big contracts in Iraq's multibillion-dollar reconstruction and infrastructure drive to ease its own economic crisis.

Politically, Iraq has hosted a series of recent meetings between Egyptian and Iranian officials who are working towards normalising relations after decades of tension. The next round of meetings is expected to take place in Baghdad later this month.

The talks are being sponsored by Oman, which enjoys close relations with both Cairo and Tehran.

Iraq, Egypt and Jordan have also been forging close relations in recent years, creating a loosely held alliance whose focus is mainly economic.