Switzerland explores sister-city partnership with Iraq’s Babylon

Shafaq News –
Baghdad

On Friday, Swiss
Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis discussed potential sister-city partnerships
between Swiss municipalities and Babylon with Iraqi Foreign Minister Fuad
Hussein.

During a tour
of the ancient city, Cassis noted that trade between the two countries had
grown 9% over the past year and that a double-taxation agreement is nearing
completion.

Prime Minister
Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had urged Cassis to encourage Swiss companies to
participate in the Development Road project—a $17 billion infrastructure
corridor linking southern Iraq’s Grand Faw Port to the Turkish border—and to
help establish a bilateral business council.

Read more: Iraq’s ambitious Development Road Project: Concerns and challenges

Located 85
kilometers south of Baghdad, Babylon was inscribed as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in 2019. Once the capital of the Neo-Babylonian Empire (626–539
BC), the 10-square-kilometer site contains walls, gates, palaces, and temples,
of which only 18% has been excavated. In 2024, it attracted nearly 50,000
visitors, including more than 5,000 foreigners, according to official data.