OREANDA-NEWS. March 24, 2011. Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey V. Lavrov visited the People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria. During the visit, he was received by Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, to whom he delivered a verbal message from President Dmitry A. Medvedev. Substantial talks were held with Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Mourad Medelci.

During the discussions, the sides noted a positive dynamics in the realization of the agreements on promotion of mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and Algeria reached during the visit of the President of the Russian Federation to Algeria on 6 October 2010.

It was emphasized that a solid foundation for further intensification of the bilateral cooperation in the trade and economic field, energy sector, as well as investment and military and technical fields was laid by the Algerian-Russian Declaration on Strategic Partnership, signed in Moscow in 2001.

While discussing issues from the regional and international agenda, the sides gave special attention to the current difficult situation in a number of North African and Middle East countries. It was stressed that Russia and Algeria are interested in ensuring a peaceful and stable democratic development of the countries in the region by addressing pressing internal political problems through national dialogue and social consensus, basing on respect to their peoples’ right to self-determination without external interference and inadmissibility of the use of force against civilians. The sides also recognized the importance of intensified collective efforts by the international community to unblock the Middle East peace process and favored finding ways to settle other regional conflicts in compliance with widely recognized international law.