The Iraqi government sought a tripartite summit with Egypt and Jordan in Baghdad at the end of March, before it was postponed. The summit was to produce the AL-Mashreq Al-Jadeed (The New Orient) project, a new political-economic project in the region aimed at building bridges of cooperation among the three States. It would welcome the accession of other States in the region, such as Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. This summit represents one of Iraq’s steps in formulating a new foreign policy following the principles to which it is committed, namely, sovereignty, cooperation, and balance, as stated.
The core of this strategic cooperation between Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan began at the Cairo Summit in March 2019, in the presence of former Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi. This summit complemented the summit held in Amman last year.Almost three months after the formation of the new Iraqi Government under Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi, the summit resulted in agreements in the area of economics, investment, and energy.
Complex political circumstances surround AL-Mashreq Al-Jadeed (The New Orient) project to be announced, given the blurred future of the regional political landscape and the ongoing conflicts between the major regional powers and the role played by the world powers in those conflicts. The States participating in the Summit are not immune from those conflicts and, beyond their positions, some of those conflicts are taking place on their territory or the outskirts of their geographical boundaries, making it difficult to generate a new political project in the region, especially if the outline of the project is unclear.
