Turkey has agreed to gradually withdraw its forces from a strategic military base in northern Iraq and hand control of it over to the Iraqi government.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Ali al-Zaydi, the leaders of the two countries, announced in a joint statement after meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York: “Given the progress Iraq has made through security measures, Turkey’s forces will, in accordance with the agreed mechanism and timeline, gradually hand over the Bashiqa-Zilikan camp to the federal government of Iraq.”

Turkey and Iraq also agreed to “expand the full sovereignty of the Iraqi state in Sinjar and end the presence of prohibited foreign armed elements.”

Iraq also pledged to remove armed groups that Turkey considers a security threat from the Sinjar area in the northwest of Iraq.

The strategic Bashiqa base has long been one of the issues of dispute between Turkey and Iraq, and despite previous negotiations about the withdrawal of its forces, Turkey has not yet fully withdrawn from the base.