The President’s Special Representative for the Middle East and African Countries, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Mikhail Bogdanov, received on Tuesday Algerian Ambassador Boumédiène Guennad, appointed to this post in July 2023.
The talks focused on “the development of deep strategic partnership relations” between the two countries, Russian diplomacy said in a press release. “Topical topics on the international and regional agenda were also discussed, notably the situation in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Saharo-Sahel region,” underlines the same source.
This meeting comes a few days after the meeting between Bogdanov and the Moroccan ambassador to Moscow, Lotfi Bouchaara, marked by “the maintenance of an active political dialogue on the issues of resolving the ongoing crises in the Middle East and North Africa based on key principles of international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” wrote the Russian Foreign Ministry.
As a reminder, Russian diplomacy received a Polisario delegation in February. For his part, Brahim Ghali urged Russia to play a more important role in resolving the Sahara issue.
On Monday, March 11 in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov received the personal envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara, Staffan de Mistura. The exchange between the two diplomats focused “on the state and prospects of the settlement process” of this conflict.
Russia is trying to revive the political process in the Sahara, which has been stalled since March 2019, “taking into account De Mistura’s latest contacts with all the stakeholders concerned,” Lavrov’s department said.
In a few weeks, Moscow met the main parties involved in the question of Western Sahara, including the United Nations.
