APS : Thursday, 31 January 2019
NEW DELHI- Foreign Minister Abdelkader Messahel, on a working visit to India held talks on Thursday in New Delhi with her Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj.
The talks allowed the two ministers to conduct an “exhaustive review of the state of the bilateral cooperation and the relations between the two countries in various fields, as part of the objectives set in the Strategic Partnership Declaration, signed between the two countries in 2001, on the occasion of President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s visit to India, and the following up of the outcomes of Indian Vice President’s visit to Algeria in October 2016.”
In this context, the two ministers expressed “their satisfaction with the relations between the two countries by renewing the two Governments’ commitment to strengthening them in new areas, like training, tourism, investment and Agriculture.”
They also agreed on the “need to renew the bilateral cooperation framework with a greater focus on the relations between the Algerian and Indian business communities in order to develop economic cooperation, trade, and investment.”
The next session of the Joint Algerian-Indian Joint Commission to be held soon in New Delhi, should be “oriented towards high value-added areas, which allow the technological transfer and the achievement of the development objectives pursued by the two parties.”
Messahel and Swaraj also exchanged views on regional and international issues of common interest, chiefly the situation in their respective regions, the fight against terrorism, violent extremism and organized crime, the issue of illegal migration, as well as climate change.
In this regard, Messahel recalled the positions of Algeria on the conflicts in the region, which advocate “the promotion of peaceful and political solutions that respect the will of peoples, free of foreign interference.”
He also reiterated Algeria’s commitment to the fight against terrorism and violent extremism, as he shared the Algerian national reconciliation experience. At the end of the talks, the two ministers signed bilateral agreements that strengthen the legal framework for cooperation between the two countries.
The two ministers agreed to continue “consultation between the two countries on all bilateral issues and matters of common interest”.
