BAGHDAD, April 28 (Xinhua) -- The Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi on Sunday urged for solutions to all outstanding issues between Iraq and Turkey, stressing the need to boost cooperation with Turkey in the fields of security, oil and water resources.
A statement by his office said Abdul Mahdi held a meeting with the visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, in which he called for launching a new phase of cooperation that would serve the interests of the two countries.
It said Abdul Mahdi also "called to end the presence of Turkish forces in Bashiqa without obtaining an approval from the Iraqi government."
According to the statement, the Iraqi premier also called on the Turkish businessmen and companies to establish factories and economic partnerships inside Iraq in the fields of industry, trade, reconstruction and agricultural fields.
For his part, Cavusoglu conveyed a letter from the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that included an invitation for Abdul Mahdi to visit Turkey, the statement said, without giving further details.
The Turkish foreign minister also called for cooperation in confronting terrorist organizations, and revealed his country's readiness to provide Iraq with electricity, it said.
"We are pleased that Iraq improves its relations with all neighboring countries, and we are looking forward to resolving all outstanding issues between the two countries in a friendly atmosphere and directly," Cavusoglu said.
Earlier in the day, Cavusoglu arrived in Baghdad heading a delegation to meet with Iraqi top officials and was scheduled to visit the Iraqi cities of Basra and Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region.
Since 2015, hundreds of Turkish soldiers have been deployed in Bashiqa camp, some 30 km northeast of the Iraqi northern city of Mosul.
The presence of the Turkish troops led to a dispute between Iraq and Turkey, as Baghdad repeatedly said Turkish forces violated Iraq's sovereignty by entering the country without permission.
However, Ankara said that Turkish soldiers were sent to Bashiqa with the aim of training both Kurdish Peshmerga fighters and local tribal volunteers during the battles against the Islamic State (IS) militants in Mosul, which was liberated from the extremist militants on July 2017 by the Iraqi forces.
