Oil and Amity

Ostensibly, the principal reason for Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin's five-day visit to Iraq last week was to join Iraqi Strongman Saddam Hussein Takriti at ceremonies marking the start of production at the rich North Rumeila oilfield 240 miles south of Baghdad. Developed with $192 million of Soviet assistance, the field, which was expropriated from Western oil companies in 1961, is expected to produce 40 million tons of oil a year by the end of the decade. Some of the petroleum will be sent to the Soviet Union to supplement its diminishing domestic supplies.

Before Kosygin returned to Moscow, he signed a 15-year "treaty of friendship and cooperation" with Iraq. Until recently, the Kremlin signed such pacts only with other Communist nations; within the past year, however, the Russians have reached similar agreements with Egypt and India. The concordat with Iraq, which may be followed shortly by another with Syria, is a departure from the former Soviet practice of dealing with the Arab states primarily through Cairo. It also gives the Russians a desired window on the Persian Gulf. Kosygin had scarcely taken off for home when a Soviet naval flotilla dropped anchor in the Iraqi port of Umm Qasr on a goodwill visit.

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