Iraq Reconstruction

Bumar signs new contracts with Iraq On July 20, the Polish Press Agency announced that the Polish defense company, Bumar, signed two new contracts with the Iraqi Ministry of Defense worth a total of roughly $150 million. Bumar will provide 600 Dzik-3 armored vehicles and 115 BTR 80 transports to the Iraqi army.

• Poland Participates in Conference on Iraq Poland participated in the Foreign Minister level international conference on Iraq held in Brussels on June 22, 2005. Over 80 countries attended the U.S.-EU co-hosted event that served as a forum for the new Iraqi Transitional Government to present its priorities, vision and strategies for the transition period leading up to the next round of elections in late 2005. To read the conference statement, click here.
  
  
• Iraqi Government Progresses toward new Constitution The recently-elected Iraqi transitional government has been making steady progress toward drafting a new constitution, having resolved a stalemate regarding the ethnic composition of the constitution-drafting panel. Transitional Administrative Law requires the legislature to draft a constitution by August 15, 2005. The document will then be presented to the Iraqi people for approval in a national referendum by October 15, 2005. (To read comments by Secretary Rice on the August 15 deadline, click here.)
  
  If the Iraqis approve the constitution, an election for a permanent Iraqi government under that new constitution will occur by the end of 2005. For more information on the political timeline in Iraq, see the Iraq Weekly Status Report.
  
  
• Polish Company Delivers Railcars to Iraq On February 15, Wagony Swidnica held a ceremony in Swidnica to deliver the first of 240 flatbed rail cars to the Iraqi Republic Railways Company (IRR) under a contract Swidnica won in June, 2004 funded by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Iraq. [more]
  
  
• Bush Announces he will seek $100 million for Polish Military On February 9, President George W. Bush told Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski he would ask Congress to approve a $100 million military-to-military expenditure to modernize the Polish armed forces. [more]
  
  
• Iraqi Elections On January 30th, the Iraqi people voted in the first free election in Iraq in over fifty years. In accordance with the Transitional Administrative Law, several important dates still remain as Iraq moves toward democracy. [more] [final election results]

For all the latest news on Iraq, visit the State Department’s Iraq Update page.