APS : Sunday, 18 February 2018
MOSCOW (Russia)- Russia and Algeria “have close relations” and have similar positions on international issues, the Russian ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the eve of Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel’s visit to Moscow.
During the visit on Monday, Messahel will have discussions with his counterpart Serguei Lavrov, before meeting the secretary of Russia’s Security Council Nikolai Patrouchev and the deputy chairman of the Federation Council (upper house of the Russian Parliament) Ilias Oumakhanov.
The two policy chiefs will held a joint news conference at the end of their meeting Monday.
“We consider Algeria as one of our main partners in Africa and the Muslim world. Russia and Algeria share many things in foreign affairs,” the ministry said in a statement.
The two countries seeks “stability and balance of interests in international relations, boosting of major UN role, and respect of the standards and basic principles of the international law, especially the right of peoples to decide on their own fate without any foreign interference. Our approaches are identical in relation to Syria and Libya, for instance.”
“Through our joint efforts, we have managed to make Russian-Algerian relations more fruitful. Diversified and rich, (the bilateral relations) encompass the material aspect, including military-technical and energy cooperation as well as sociocultural exchanges.”
“For many years, our exchanges exceed three billion dollars,” the statement added.
The ministry of Foreign Affairs underlined that during Russian Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev’s visit to Algeria, in October 2017, the two sides “agreed upon a vast programme of concrete steps, which will also extend to high-tech fields, including the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.”
