Iraqi PM: our cooperation with Kuwait progressing well

BRUSSELS, July 12 (KUNA) -- Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi Thursday described his country's ties with Kuwait as "very good." "The past is behind us and now there is a big cooperation between us," he told reporters after attending a meeting of the Coalition to counter ISIL (Daesh) at NATO headquarters today.
Al Abadi noted that Kuwait hosted a reconstruction conference for Iraq in February and there were pledges made for investments and assistance Iraq.
He said Kuwait pledged USD 2 billion for reconstruction of Iraq and added that "they are serious in this direction." Since the conference of Kuwait till now a number of schools , hospital and health-care centres have been constructed in Iraq with Kuwait money and investment , said the Iraqi PM.
He said the money which has been spent on the Iraq-Iraq war and the Kuwait war would have been enough for the development of the whole region and stressed that "we must now seek development of the region." "We have gone to a great extent to eliminate Daesh from the country and our security forces have developed their skills. We want the security forces to keep these skills and develop them further because we know there are challenges in the future," he said referring to the decision by NATO leaders on Wednesday to launch a new training mission to Iraq.
"Terrorism is an ideological disease and I think it is going to stay in the area for some time. We have to be capable to confronting this terrorism and we want proper training for our security forces to respect the citizens and human rights," he added. (end) nk