MOSCOW, June 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia hopes that military-technical cooperation with Iraq will make it possible to strengthen the country's defense capacity and sovereignty, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said.

"Russia's military-technical cooperation with Iraq is rather serious," Lavrov said on Friday.

“It (cooperation) was rather serious earlier. In the course of the Iraqi premier’s visit to Moscow last year both parties reached new agreements that met international standards,” he said.

New steps towards developing military-technical cooperation were taken in 2013. "We agreed on combat aircraft supplies. We hope that these supplies will strengthen Iraq's independence," he said.