Agencies/New Delhi
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki arrived here yesterday on a four-day state visit.
He was received by Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur at the Indira Gandhi International airport’s ceremonial lounge.
Maliki is accompanied by a high-level delegation that includes ministers, senior officials and captains of industry.
The visit is the first high-level bilateral trip in 38 years. Then Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi visited Iraq in 1975.
Today, Maliki will visit Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial and then call on President Pranab Mukherjee and Vice-President Hamid Ansari.
In the afternoon, he will attend a luncheon hosted by leading business houses.
In the evening, opposition leader Sushma Swaraj will call on him, after which he will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Before leaving Baghdad Maliki said he expects to finalise a deal to sell India more crude oil.
Iraq was India’s biggest supplier of crude in June, pipping Saudi Arabia to the top slot, while imports from Iran, which used to be India’s second-biggest supplier, have slumped due to sanctions.
Indian energy companies are also interested in Iraqi oil exploration and refinery projects and Maliki’s visit may see in some preliminary agreements on Indian investments in the increasingly important Opec oil producer.
“Iraq welcomed this desire by India to initiate this co-operation in the energy area which includes a deal ... to supply India with oil,” Maliki said at a press conference in Baghdad before leaving for India.
India’s imports of crude oil from Iran have more than halved from a year ago, hitting just 140,800 bpd in June, with Essar Oil the only remaining Indian client of the sanctions-hit country.
