JOINT COMMITTEE MEETING. The Philippines and Iraq hold the 8th Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) at the Manila Diamond Hotel in Pasay City on Aug. 30-31, 2023. Their next JCM is being eyed in October next year in Baghdad. (Courtesy of Iraqi CDA Khalid Ibrahim Mohammed)
MANILA – Both senior officials from the Philippines and Iraq have confirmed that the 9th Joint Committee Meeting (JCM) of the two countries is being eyed in October next year in Baghdad following the recently concluded JCM from Aug. 30 to 31 here.
Asked about the date of the next Iraq-Philippines JCM, Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Assistant Secretary for Middle East and Africa Mardomel Celo Melicor said on the sidelines of the dinner hosted by the Iraqi Embassy Thursday night that their counterpart has invited the Philippines to bring its delegation to Baghdad in the latter part of 2024 to continue the discussions on several topics of cooperation.
Before the recently concluded JCM, the last one was held in Baghdad 10 years ago.
Melicor, who co-chaired the JCM with Iraqi Deputy Health Minister Khamees Hussein Ali, said the Iraqi government is interested in holding the JCM annually.
This was also confirmed by the Iraq Embassy in Manila Chargé d'Affaires Khalid Ibrahim Mohammed.
“The JCM is the key that opened the door of great opportunities between our two countries,” he told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) in a phone interview Friday.
Mohammed shared that the four agendas for cooperation that the Iraqi government put on the discussion table during the recent JCM were “all adopted”.
These cooperation are trade and financial, which include discussing trade issues and exchange of trade and exhibitions, banking and finance, and private sectors of both countries; economic cooperation, including fields of transportation, air transport, industry, oil, agriculture, construction and housing, health, communication, and development and planning; science, technical, and cultural cooperation, including education, labor and social affairs, and culture and tourism; and consular cooperation.
He said both parties also agreed to add cooperation in addressing political and security concerns.
“We are glad with our negotiations. And next year in October, we will have another meeting for this community. During this time, there (are) bilateral visits between the Iraqi (and the Philippine) sides — our individual departments— for example, in transportation, labor, Ministry of Health, all of these,” the diplomat added.
“Exchanges of documents” between the government agencies of the two countries will be made during JCMs to update both sides on the policy and explore the areas for collaboration, Mohammed said.
One of the requests of the Iraqi government is the resumption of the deployment of Filipino workers, especially professionals in the health sector, to Iraq as the Middle East country needs physicians and nurses.
For the side of the DFA and the Department of Migrant Workers, the safety and security of Filipinos should be ensured before the Philippine government lowers the current status of Alert Level 3 in Iraq and starts to deploy Filipino workers.
Iraq’s top representative in Manila said if this is not yet possible in the near term, Baghdad has asked the Philippine government to have an agreement to send medical professionals from the Philippines to train Iraqi health workers and also to receive Iraqi faculties and students in the field of medicine for training in the country’s leading colleges and universities for doctors and nurses.
“We want to know from your expertise because the Filipino health workers are one of the best in the world,” Mohammed said. (PNA)
