The Ambassador of the United States to Iraq, Ms. Alina Romanowski, visited the American University of Iraq-Baghdad (AUIB), where she addressed an audience of students and faculty members at the American Space and engaged them in discussion on U.S.-Iraqi relationships.
Ambassador Romanowski commended the role of AUIB’s American Space in promoting a better understanding on part of Iraqis of the United States, speaking of the U.S. Embassy’s efforts at “broadening the partnership” between the two countries to take it beyond the military and security aspects towards a “360-degrees partnership,” inclusive of a wide array of aspects, such as the economic, educational, and cultural. The partnership between the United States and Iraq has recently been “transformed,” especially in the last two years, said the diplomat, maintaining that the two countries have a “shared objective” of realizing “a stable, secure, prosperous, and democratic Iraq.”
The seasoned U.S. diplomat touched on a few of her country’s key policy objectives in Iraq, namely “supporting (Iraq’s) energy independence” by developing energy infrastructure, to reduce the country’s reliance on foreign energy sources. She also spoke of integrating Iraq’s economy into the “world economy” through the U.S. financial architecture, and “restoring trust” in Iraq’s banking sector. In her exchange with students, Ambassador Romanowsky discussed “government reforms,” remarking that the Iraqi “public sector is huge; bigger than it should be.”