ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Russia is "very happy" about the resumption of Kurdish oil exports, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Rudaw's Namo Abdulla in a press conference at the United Nations on Saturday.
"We are very happy about it," Lavrov said, adding the export deal means "only one thing, that the Kurds and Arabs in Iraq can deal with each other and find an agreement."
Iraq and the Kurdistan Region share close economic ties with Russia. A number of Russian oil companies including Lukoil, Gazprom Neft, and Rosneft operate in both the Kurdistan Region and in oilfields in southern Iraq. The two countries first established diplomatic relations in 1944.
Kurdish oil exports resumed via the Iraq-Turkey pipeline on Saturday after the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), Iraqi federal government and international oil companies concluded more than two years of negotiations and cemented a deal earlier this week.
The exports had been suspended in March 2023, when a Paris-based arbitration court found that Ankara had violated a 1973 pipeline deal with Baghdad by allowing Erbil to independently export oil beginning in 2014.
Lavrov said he spoke with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and stays in regular communication with the Kurdish leadership.
"We are very deeply satisfied with the fact that the Kurds and central authorities are fostering dialogue,” he said, adding that Moscow does not want "the Kurdish issue to blow up in every one's face."
He said that, with their recent oil export deal, Erbil and Baghdad have shown that they can get along.
"Without a national accord, countries would fall apart," he said. "Erbil and Baghdad have proven that and we are actively supporting this process."
