Iran's new president, Masud Pezeshkian, kicked off a three-day visit to neighboring Iraq on September 11 on what is his first foreign trip since taking office in late July.
Expanding relations with neighbors is Iran’s state policy, and Pezeshkian has vowed to deliver.
Pezeshkian, who speaks fluent Kurdish, will also make history by becoming the first Iranian president to visit Iraqi Kurdistan.
While the government in Tehran has had good relations with the authorities in Irbil, ties have often been tested over the semiautonomous Iraqi region's hosting of outlawed opposition Iranian Kurdish groups.
Baghdad and Irbil recently started implementing a security agreement signed last year with Tehran to move the groups away from the border with Iran and disarm them.
"It was a very good opportunity to visit the friend and brother country of Iraq in my first foreign trip as the president of Iran," Pezeshkian said in Baghdad.
"We need to implement security cooperation agreements between the two countries in order to deal with terrorists and enemies," he added.
The neighbors have strong economic relations, and Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani told reporters during a joint news conference with Pezeshkian that the two countries signed 14 memorandums of understanding to boost relations.
Pezeshkian will also visit Basra, Iraq's economic hub, which Iran hopes to link to the town of Shalamcheh just across the border via rail as part of a larger railway project connecting Iran to Syria.
Pezeshkian and Sudani also discussed the war in Gaza, with the latter telling reporters at a joint press conference that both leaders opposed any expansion of the war between Israel and Hamas, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union.