Minister of Foreign Affairs Bogdan Aurescu welcomed the Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad of the Democratic and People’s Republic of Algeria, Amar Belani, the two officials reconfirming, in this context „their wishes for the further development and deepening of Romanian-Algerian relations,” reads a press release of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, according to Agerpres.

Minister Bogdan Aurescu mentioned the anniversary, in 2022, of 60 years of Romanian-Algerian diplomatic ties and evoked the very good traditional relations existing between the two countries, while describing Romania’s relation with the Algerian state as one that has „the most potential for development, in Romania’s view, in the Middle East and North African region.”

Aurescu also noted last year’s exceptional increase in the trade exchanges between the the countries, by over 430% compared to the previous year, and reiterated his invitation addressed to his Algerian counterpart, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ramtane Lamamra, to pay an official visit to Romania this year, on which occasion the activity of the Romanian-Algerian intergovernmental joint commission could be resumed.

In his turn, the Secretary General of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs suggested that a road map could be drawn up that would establish the priorities of bilateral cooperation and the calendar of operations for the next period.

The visit to Bucharest of the high-ranking Algerian official also occasioned the organization of a session of political consultations at the level of the Foreign Ministries of Romania and of the Democratic and People’s Republic of Algeria, at the level of secretary of state and secretary general, respectively.

Thus, according to the MAE, during the talks with his Algerian counterpart, the Romania Secretary of State for Global Affairs and Diplomatic Strategies, Traian Hristea, reconfirmed the Romanian side’s desire to strengthen and deepen the political dialogue between the two states, as well as to advance and diversify the Romanian-Algerian cooperation in several fields, such as economic, agricultural, energy, education and research fields.

General Secretary Amar Belani expressed interest in economic cooperation, state of the art technologies, digitization, cyber security, agriculture, fishery, emergency management, combating organized crime, border security, higher education and scientific research.

Secretary of State Traian Hristea presented Romania’s assessments and positions regarding Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the humanitarian crisis caused by it and the impact of this war on the states in the region, as well as the serious consequences of the war on a global level. He referred extensively to the actions taken by the Romanian authorities to facilitate the transit of grains and other products from Ukraine through the Romanian ports on the Danube and the Black Sea. At the same time, he encouraged the Algerian partners to analyze the possibility of diversifying the markets for the purchase of agricultural products, including from the Republic of Moldova.

The Algerian official made a broad presentation of the security situation in the Sahel region and North Africa, where Algeria plays an important role in restoring peace and security.

Agerpres