Germany, Algeria to boost economic, security cooperation

Algeria and Germany have agreed to boost their economic partnership and counter-terrorism fight while German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was in Algeria for a visit.

Steinmeier held on Sunday talks with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika on a number of international and regional issues, including the situation in Libya, Iraq and Syria.

The German minister said that his country "seeks to have closer relations with Algeria in the economic field, and that several German companies expressed their will to enter the Algerian market."

He urged companies in both countries to establish "lasting and diversified" partnerships based on technology transfer. He further hailed Algeria's stability as an attractive ground for German companies.

For his part, Algerian Minister of Industry and Mining, Abdeslam Bouchouareb said the next meeting of the Algerian-German Joint Commission is to be held next April in Berlin to examine several partnership projects, mainly in the industrial field.

He further stressed the need to introduce a new approach in Algerian-German "strategic" partnership.

Earlier on Saturday, Steinmeier held talks with his Algerian counterpart, Ramtane Lamamra. He told a press conference that Germany looks forward to strengthening international counter-terrorism cooperation for an efficient fight against this scourge. Endit