ALGIERS, Oct 10 (NNN-XNHUA/AGENCIES) — French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne arrived on Sunday in Algiers for a two-day visit to boost cooperation with Algeria.
Leading a delegation of 16 senior officials, she held talks with her Algerian counterpart Ayman Benabderrahmane and laid a wreath of flowers before the Martyrs’ Memorial to commemorate the victims of the Algerian War of Independence, which lasted from 1954 to 1962.
Amid the ongoing international energy crisis, analysts say Borne’s visit aims to boost cooperation between France and Algeria, notably in the gas field.
Her two-day trip along with 16 ministers — over a third of her government — comes just six weeks after President Emmanuel Macron concluded a three-day visit aimed at ending months of tensions with Algiers.
Borne is expected to sign deals on economic cooperation, including energy — although deliveries of natural gas to France are “not on the table”, according to her office.
Borne is also set to meet Algerian Pres Abdelmadjid Tebboune, as well as Prime Minister Aimene Benabderrahmane, with whom she is expected to sign several agreements.
In an interview with news website Tout Sur l’Algerie (TSA), she said the visit would focus on “education, culture, the ecological transition and the economy”.
“More cooperation will be a source of growth for our two countries,” she said.
Borne and her cohort are the latest in a string of top European officials to visit Algeria, Africa’s top natural gas exporter, in search of alternatives to Russian energy supplies since the start of the war in Ukraine.
Algeria’s Sonatrach signed a $4-billion oil and gas production deal with Italian, French and US majors in July, but experts have cast doubt over Algeria’s ability to ramp up capacity in the short term.
The European Union’s energy commissioner Kadri Simson is also expected in Algiers on Monday and Tuesday. — NNN-XINHUA/AGENCIES
