ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is set to visit Baghdad on Sunday, the ministry announced on Saturday.

Fidan is set to meet with Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid, Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani, and Foreign Minister Fuad Hussain to discuss bilateral relations and current regional developments, Turkish state media Anadolu Agency reported on Saturday.

“It is expected that Fidan will reaffirm Turkey’s will to enhance their relations with Iraq on the basis of a positive agenda and under an institutionalized framework,” Anadolu Agency wrote, adding that “emphasis will be put on its determination to effectively operate the various cooperation mechanisms established after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's historic visit to Iraq on April 22.”

The meeting comes a month after the Interior Ministers of both countries met and discussed details of a security agreement between Baghdad and Ankara on countering the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

In addition Fidan is expected  to deliver his country’s satisfaction with the understanding being developed in the areas of security and counter-terrorism with Iraq, and with Iraq's declaration of the PKK as a “banned organization.”

Turkey’s Erdogan visited Baghdad and Erbil on April 2024 where  he signed 24 memoranda of understanding with Mohammad Shia’ al-Sudani and discussed security issues.

The Fidan visit is set to take place only two days after two Iraqi border guards were killed and another one wounded in an armed clash that Iraq's interior ministry blamed on the PKK.

Iraq officially in July 2024 rebranded the PKK to “Banned PKK” in all affairs of state, months after a high-level meeting between Ankara and Baghdad led the Iraqi side to criminalize the group officially.

Turkey has for years launched several rounds of an operation dubbed Claw Operation against positions of the PKK in the Kurdistan Region. 

Turkish President Erdogan last year claimed that they were close to permanently “resolving” the PKK presence on the Turkey-Iraq border.