ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani will meet the King of Britain and the British premier during his visit to London and sign a series of MoUs in the economic and investment sector.

Sudani will take off to London from Baghdad on Monday afternoon, read a statement from the prime minister’s office, adding that he will meet King Charles III and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during his visit.

“The visit of the Prime Minister comes within the framework of enhancing the prospects of cooperation between Iraq and the United Kingdom, as it will witness the signing of agreements and memoranda of understanding in various tracks, especially in the economic, investment and security fields,” the statement added.

The visit comes after a meeting with British ambassador to Iraq Stephen Hitchen on December 30, 2024, where preparations for his visit to the UK were discussed after an official invitation. 

Sudani was initially set to visit London in early October, however the visit was then delayed with his media office citing the regional developments at the time.

The visit now comes just days after Sudani concluded a one-day visit to Tehran, where he met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The UK has been a strong ally of Iraq in the war against the Islamic State (ISIS). British forces were part of the US-led global coalition that was deployed to Iraq at the request of the Iraqi government in 2014 to fight the Islamic State (ISIS), which had then overrun large swathes of Iraqi territory in the north and west of the country.