Beijing, November 30th—The CPC and 11 main political parties of Iraq co-established here today the Belt and Road exchange mechanism between Chinese and Iraqi political parties, and held its first meeting via videolink. Zhu Rui, Assistant-minister of the International Department of the CPC Central Committee, and leaders of Sadrist Movement, Badr Organization, Iraqi National Accord, Kurdistan Democratic Party, and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan from Iraq attended and addressed the function.

Zhu said that China and Iraq have established strategic partnership and are good friends and brothers. In recent years, guided by General Secretary Xi Jinping and leaders of the Iraqi side, China-Iraq relations have made new positive progress. In the fight against COVID-19 this year, the friendship between the two peoples has been further deepened. As Iraq is China's important partner in the Belt and Road cooperation, the CPC is willing to, by taking the establishment of this exchange mechanism as an opportunity, work with Iraqi political parties to further enhance mutual political trust and policy communication between the two countries, promote business communication and project integration, facilitate people-to-people bond and a friendly public opinion environment, and booster high-quality development of the Belt and Road cooperation between China and Iraq. Zhu also briefed on the spirit of the fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee in terms of the new development stage, development concept and development pattern, saying that China's development in the future will create more cooperation opportunities for countries around the world including Iraq.

Leaders of Iraqi political parties warmly congratulated on the success of the fifth plenary session of the 19th CPC Central Committee, saying that the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035 adopted at the fifth plenary session will surely lead China to greater development achievements and bring more opportunities for world economic recovery and common development of all countries. They spoke highly of the CPC’s initiative to establish an exchange mechanism for the Belt and Road cooperation between Chinese and Iraqi political parties, and said that though political parties in Iraq have ethnic, religious, political differences, yet they share a high degree of consensus on developing Iraq-China relations and practical cooperation. They also expressed their willingness to work with the CPC to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, and give play to the role of all parties, and well establish and make full use of this mechanism, to especially promote the strategic integration between the Iraq's economic reconstruction plan and China’s 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025) and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035, and promote Iraq-China strategic partnership and push the Belt and Road cooperation for new and greater development.

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