Algerian president receives French prime minister in Algiers to promote bilateral cooperation

The President of Algeria, Abdelmajid Tebune, has received this Monday in the capital, Algiers, the Prime Minister of France, Elisabeth Borne, who has been in the country since Sunday to boost economic cooperation between the two nations and thus ratify the agreement signed in August between the French President, Emmanuel Macron, and his Algerian counterpart.

This meeting comes in the framework of a two-day business forum organized by the Algerian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACI) and the Algerian-French Chamber of Commerce (CCIAF) attended by various senior Algerian government officials.

Borne is accompanied by 16 ministers of the French Executive, including the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, according to the French newspaper ‘Le Figaro’.

The day before, Borne signed, together with the Algerian Prime Minister, Aimen Benabderrahmane, a “declaration of intent” to strengthen the Algerian-French partnership in various sectors, such as tourism, agriculture, trade or industry.

The French delegation signed, together with the Algerian delegation, nearly eleven agreements at the International Conference Palace in Algiers, within the High Level Intergovernmental Committee, a space for cooperation between the two nations that had not been held for at least five years.

Algerian Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra explained Sunday in an interview with ‘L’Opinion’, picked up by the daily ‘Tout sur l’Algerie’, that the Algerian side is “ready” to “preserve the relationship” with France.

Thus, Lamamra stressed that Tebune had with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, talks “unprecedented compared to previous visits”. “They made it possible to identify a common vision of a peaceful, trusting, reciprocally respectful and advantageous relationship,” he said.

The visit of the French delegation to Algeria, led by Borne, follows the meeting between the two presidents in August, when they said they would push for a “new irreversible dynamic” in bilateral relations between France and Algeria.

Paris and Algiers have thus given a new impetus to their economic relations to promote a balanced partnership in the interests of both countries, especially as regards the energy transition, in particular through cooperation in the fields of gas and hydrogen.