Following the US-led invasion of Iraq, the Iraqis did not possess enough capital and technology to reconstruct their war-torn country. Since Iraq also did not receive much-needed support promised previously in different forms by Western leaders, it was left with little option but to approach resourceful Eastern countries in order to rebuild its shattered vital infrastructure and secure a great deal of its economic and technological requirements. For their part, almost all rich and influential Asian countries gave a positive response to the new Iraqi looking-East orientation by rekindling their political-diplomatic, economic and even military relationship with the post-Saddam Iraq.

Shirzad Azad is Associate Professor of International Relations in the Department of Political Science at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. His previous works have been published by several peer-reviewed journals, including Middle East Policy, The International Spectator, Asian Affairs, Contemporary Arab Affairs, Asian Politics & Policy, Contemporary Review of the Middle East, and East Asia: An International Quarterly.