Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq (gov.krd) - A meeting was held yesterday in Erbil between Kurdistan Regional Government Chairmanship and Kurdish ministers and members of parliament in Iraqi Federal Government and Parliament.

The meeting was chaired by Kurdistan Region Prime Minister, Nechirvan Barzani and was held to discuss the establishment of a mechanism to develop coordination between the two sides.

Prime Minister Barzani congratulated the MPs of the Kurdistan Alliance block in Iraqi parliament for playing an important role in the 2015 budget negotiations and ensuring its approval earlier this week by the Iraqi Parliament. He praised them for their level of cooperation and coordination which was welcomed both by the Kurdistan Region and Iraq.

They discussed the ways to follow up the implementation of the agreement, reached last December, between Erbil and Baghdad on oil export and budgetary issues.

Both sides stressed the need for further coordination between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Kurdistani ministers, MPs and representatives in Baghdad. They agreed on setting a new mechanism with the view to exchanging information between the two sides more efficiently, in order to better present Kurdistan Region’s views and stances.

They reiterated the importance of the recent agreement reached between the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Federal Government of Iraq and the significance of passing the 2015 Iraqi federal budget.

Prime Minister Barzani also reaffirmed the Kurdistan Region’s commitment to this agreement and dialog on resolving any other issues.

He said that he would be heading a delegation to visit Baghdad soon and hold meetings with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi and other relevant officials in the Iraqi government, in order to find a settlement to other outstanding issues.