Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro meets Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune during an official visit to Algiers.
Algeria and Venezuela agreed on Thursday to strengthen their economic cooperation, as President Nicolas Maduro visited his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune.
“We have agreed to strengthen economic cooperation between our countries,” Tebboune told a joint press conference broadcast by state television after their meeting.
He also announced that direct flights would soon be launched between Algiers and Caracas.
Maduro said he was “very happy with this decision” and added that the two governments wanted to collaborate more closely, especially in the field of oil and gas. Both countries are heavily dependent on energy exports and are members of OPEC.
Like all visiting leaders, Nicolas Maduro paid homage to the ‘martyrs’ of Algeria’s brutal seven-year war of independence against France, laying a wreath at the National War Memorial and observing a minute of silence.
Mr. Maduro arrived on Wednesday evening, greeted at Algiers airport by the Algerian Prime Minister, as he began what Algeria’s state-run news agency APS called a “working and friendship visit” for two days.
His visit to Algeria comes as around 20 leaders traveled to Los Angeles for the Summit of the Americas hosted by US President Joe Biden, to which the leftist Venezuelan was among those not invited.
