UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammad Shia al-Sudani have signed a comprehensive partnership and cooperation agreement that encompasses trade, economic collaboration and strategic relations, Al Arabyia reported on January 14.

The agreement comes amid al-Sudani’s official visit to the United Kingdom from 14 to 16 January 2025.

The Iraqi cabinet announced that the two leaders agreed on a trade package valued at GBP12.3bn (approximately $15bn) which exceeds ten times the total bilateral trade of the previous year. A series of export credit agreements will support the agreement.

Key projects include a GBP5.3bn comprehensive water infrastructure programme to improve irrigation and clean water supply in southern and western Iraq, a GBP3.3bn water treatment project in Basra serving three million people, and a GBP1.2bn power grid interconnection between Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

"This marks a new era in UK-Iraq cooperation, which will deliver mutual benefits from trade to defence," Starmer said at Downing Street, noting the package represents a ten-fold increase over last year's bilateral trade.

The agreement includes British expertise for a GBP500mn rehabilitation of Iraq's Qayyarah airbase, a GBP330mn landmine clearance programme, and Vodafone's GBP410mn project to design Iraq's new 5G network over 20 years.

On security cooperation, both leaders signed a joint defence statement marking a decade since the Global Coalition's mission in Iraq. They also agreed to negotiate a specific migrant returns agreement and enhance border security collaboration.

As the deal was being signed between the two premiers, British crime-fighting forces were on a special mission in northern Iraq, where they arrested part of a gang based out of the Kurdish region of the country. 

Following signing the agreement, 10 Downing Street wrote on its X account, "We are working together on trade, growth, and a first-of-its-kind returns agreement to help crack down on organised immigration crime."

The deal encompasses educational exchange, with Iraq announcing a scholarship programme for 2,000 Iraqi students to study in Britain, as well as cooperation on climate change, with Iraq committing to end gas flaring by 2028.

Al-Sudani's three-day visit, which includes a meeting with King Charles III, underscores growing UK-Iraq ties amid regional tensions. The Iraqi leader wrote in The Sunday Telegraph that Baghdad seeks stronger strategic partnership with London given "unprecedented and escalating events in the Middle East."

Earlier in November, Cooper visited Iraq as part of the build-up to the agreement, where she signed a landmark security agreement with the country to tackle smuggling gangs.

Cooper's three-day visit to Iraq included GBP800,000 ($1.01mn) in British funding for border security training and anti-smuggling initiatives across Iraq and its Kurdistan region.

"These landmark commitments send a clear signal to the criminal smuggling gangs that we are determined to work across the globe to go after them," Cooper said.