ANKARA – Friday, 08 September 2023 (APS) – Algeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, Ahmed Attaf said Thursday during his working visit to Ankara, upon instruction from the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, that Algerian-Turkish relations were enjoying “strong momentum and significant progress on both the political and economic levels.’’
Speaking at a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, Attaf said that all the meetings and talks he had held with senior officials during his stay in Ankara “enabled us to make an overall assessment of our progress in achieving the qualitative priorities and quantitative objectives set out by the two Presidents, Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as a prelude to and in preparation for their forthcoming meeting in Algeria, on the occasion of the 2nd session of the High-Level Cooperation Council.”
The FM affirmed that Algerian-Turkish relations were experiencing “strong momentum and notable progress on both the political and economic levels.”
The Minister also stressed that the Algerian-Turkish political consensus on the main regional and international issues of common interest “is still in place, and is being strengthened through our shared commitment to the principles and values enshrined in the United Nations Charter, as well as through the tireless efforts of the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune to ensure that the logic of dialogue and negotiation prevails in resolving crises and conflicts, however complicated or serious they may be.”
In this regard, Attaf said he had shared with President Erdogan and his Turkish counterpart “Algeria’s analytical vision of the dangerous developments in the Sahelo-Sahara region, as well as its deep concern at the accelerating deterioration of the situation in this regional space,” which “has become the focus of the greatest number of tensions and conflicts in the world”, he said.
“I also informed the Turkish brothers of the President of the Republic’s initiative to ensure a peaceful resolution to the crisis caused by the unconstitutional change in Niger, and of his efforts to strengthen the comprehensive development approach in the face of the multidimensional challenges facing the countries and peoples of this region. These efforts were warmly welcomed and supported by Turkey, a brotherly country,” continued the FM.
For his part, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that, during talks with his Algerian counterpart, he had discussed the Turkish President’s visit to Algeria, as well as strategic issues of interest to both countries.
Fidan said they had also focused on boosting cooperation in resolving problems in Africa.