ALGIERS- Minister of Maghreb Affairs, African Union and Arab League Abdelkader Messahel and Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister Li Huilai expressed Saturday, in Algiers, the two countries’ willingness to strengthen their cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
“The strengthening of the cooperation between China and Algeria in the fight against terrorism meets the common interests of the two countries and the need to preserve peace, stability and development in our regions,” said Li Huilai at the end of a meeting of the first session of the strategic and security dialogue between Algeria and China.
He said that he had “deep” discussions with Messahel on the regional and international anti-terrorist situation and the bilateral cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
“We have highly convergent positions on several issues and we agreed to emphasize the role of our consultations mechanism and to strengthen the cooperation in all the fields,” he added.
The Chinese official said that “Algeria, which is an influential country in North Africa and Arab world, attaches, for a long time, a great importance to the fight against terrorism and extremism,” adding that Algeria has also adopted “a series of effective and strong measures in these fields and achieved a big success.”
He affirmed that “thanks to the enlightened leadership of President of the Republic Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Algeria managed to preserve the social stability, national unity and economic development and improve the population’s well-being.”
For his part, Messahel said that Algeria and China, bound by a comprehensive strategic partnership in all fields, “hope to expand and deepen this cooperation.”
“It is obvious that China, as a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and Algeria’s strategic ally, we have this kind of mechanism which allows us to exchange our analyses, views and our approaches in terms of the fight against terrorism,” he said.
Source: Algeria-China: Common willingness to strengthen cooperation in fight against terrorism
