Canadian Foreign Affairs John Baird: Iraq

John Baird Dept: Baird landed in Baghdad in the morning by plane, marking the first trip to Iraq by a Canadian foreign minister since 1976, according to CBC. "Today's opening is a historic milestone in Canadian relations with Iraq and comes at a pivotal moment," Baird said in a release Monday from the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ottawa. "Ten years after the Iraqi intervention, Iraq is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, despite deep and lingering sectarian tensions." Canadian Foreign Affairs John Baird, shown in the House of Commons in February, is in Iraq for a diplomatic mission. Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird arrived in Iraq today under tight security to open a new diplomatic mission aimed at fostering trade with the troubled Mideast country that has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. As part of the mission, he is opening a diplomatic office that will be an offshoot of Canada's embassy in Amman, Jordan. The new office, however, will operate out of the British Embassy in Baghdad. It will be run by charge d'affairs Stephanie Duhaime, who had served in Iraq, Lebanon, Bangladesh and Syria and who played a role in developing NATO and Canadian counter-insurgency efforts in Afghanistan in 2009-2010. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.