Iraq

French presence

Consulates: Consular section in Baghdad and Consulates General in Erbil and Mosul 
French community in Iraq: around 300 people
Iraqi community in France: around 3,900 people

Visits

Iraqi visits to France:

• 24 May 2022: Ihsan Abdul-Jabbar Ismail, Minister of Oil of the Republic of Iraq
• 24 June 2021: Mohammed al-Halbousi, Speaker of Parliament
• 30 March 2021: Nechirvan Barzani, President of Kurdistan Region, Iraq.
• 4-8 November 2020: Juma Inad, Minister of Defence of the Republic of Iraq
• 19 October 2020: Mustafa al-Kadhimi, Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq
• 18 September 2020: Fuad Hussein, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Iraq
• 10-11 July 2019: Nechirvan Barzani, President of Kurdistan Region, Iraq.
• 2-3 May 2019: Adel Abdel-Mahdi, Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq
• 25-26 February 2019: Barhem Saleh, President of the Republic of Iraq
• 2 December 2017: Nechirvan Barzani, Prime Minister of Kurdistan Region, Iraq
• 5 October 2017: Haider al-Abadi, Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq (official visit)
• 21 February 2017: Massoud Barzani, President of Kurdistan Region, Iraq

French visits to Iraq:

• 28-29 August 2021: Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republic
• 2 September 2020: Emmanuel Macron, President of the Republic
• 26-27 August 2020: Florence Parly, Minister for the Armed Forces
• 16-17 July 2020: Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs
• 17-18 October 2019: Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs
• 7-8 February 2019: Florence Parly, Minister for the Armed Forces
• 14-15 January 2019: Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs
• 12 February 2018: Jean-Yves Le Drian, French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs
• 6-7 December 2017: Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne, Minister of State attached to the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs (joint economic commission)
• 26 August 2017: Jean-Yves Le Drian, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, and Florence Parly, Minister for the Armed Forces
• 2 January 2017: François Hollande, President of the Republic

Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation

Concerning academic cooperation, a shared-cost scholarship programme was signed in 2019 between France and Iraq, enabling researchers, doctoral candidates and master’s students to undertake academic mobility to France. In humanities and archaeology, the outpost of the Institut Français du Proche Orient (IFPO, French Institute for the Near East) in Erbil contributes considerably to academic cooperation with Iraqi institutions.

Enhancing French-language teaching is a major focus of our bilateral cooperation with Iraq. Today, some 100 schools in Iraq (out of around 5,000) offer French as a second foreign language, including around 60 elite high schools where it is compulsory. Around 2,000 students are learning French at elementary level. A continuous training plan has been put in place to develop the teaching of French in Iraq, aimed at secondary teachers and financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The French Embassy in Iraq is also supporting curriculum changes in the French departments of public universities at bachelor’s level.

Lastly, cultural cooperation is also an important priority for our relationship with Iraq. Inaugurated in 2012, before closing between 2014 and 2017, the Institut Français branch in Baghdad is today one of the few foreign cultural centres offering regular cultural programming. There is also an Institut Français branch in Erbil. Since 2021, the Institut Français in Erbil has offered a joint cultural programme with the Goethe Institute in Iraq, which is located on the same premises. A Franco-Iraqi cultural centre is located at the University of Mosul campus.