BAGHDAD — Vice President Joe Biden flew into Baghdad on Tuesday to mark the end of the Iraq war and the start of a new chapter in the relationship between Baghdad and Washington, as U.S. troops stream out of Iraq to meet the year-end deadline for their departure.
A key focus of Biden’s talks with Iraqi leaders will be the thorny question of future military cooperation and how much assistance it will be possible for the United States to continue to provide to the Iraqi security forces, given the breakdown of negotiations to keep some U.S. forces here longer, U.S. officials say.
The visit comes as the U.S. military accelerates efforts to meet the Dec. 31 withdrawal date stipulated by the security agreement signed during the George W. Bush administration. The main highway leading south to Kuwait has been clogged for weeks by convoys, and the skies over Baghdad echo nightly with the roar of aircraft flying soldiers home.
Biden will be looking for ways in which the U.S. military can sustain the close relationship it has forged with the Iraqi security forces over the past 8 1/2 years under the terms of the Strategic Framework Agreement, an accord signed at the same time as the security pact that lays out the terms for cooperation in a variety of fields.
Among the many possibilities being discussed are an expanded role for NATO trainers, joint military exercises inside and outside Iraq and some form of air cooperation that would address concerns on both sides that Iraq is unable to defend its airspace.
The Iraqi army has placed more than $8 billion worth of orders for U.S. military hardware, including M1-A1 Abrams tanks and howitzers, in addition to 18 F-16s that won’t be delivered until 2015. All require sophisticated training, U.S. officials say.
About 200 members of the U.S. military will remain behind as part of the Office of Security Cooperation Iraq, under the auspices of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.
