On 21 November 2012, NATO’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs James Appathurai travelled to Baghdad at the invitation of the Iraqi government. He met with Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and with National Security Advisor Falih al-Fayyadh.

Mr. Appathurai’s visit, only two months after the Iraqi National Security Advisor’s visit to NATO HQ, aims at reinforcing bilateral political dialogue between NATO and Iraq, and will also serve to steer the implementation of the NATO-Iraq Individual Partnership and Cooperation Programme.



NATO is committed to building a full-fledged partnership with Iraq, based on the principles of respect for sovereignty, respect for international law, joint ownership and mutual benefit. The signing of the NATO-Iraq Individual Partnership and Cooperation programme, only two months ago, marked the formal accession of Iraq to NATO’s “partnership family”.



During his meetings with the Iraqi leadership, Mr. Appathurai reaffirmed NATO’s commitment to assisting Iraq as it builds a modern security sector, as well as the Alliance’s interest in maintaining regular high-level political dialogue on security issues of common interest.