Algeria, Saudi Arabia In The Task Of Moving Heavy Files

President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, started a 3-day official working visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday.

President Tabun arrived Wednesday afternoon in Riyadh, where he was received by Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Prince of Riyadh, and Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Interior Minister, at King Khalid International Airport.

President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, received, at his residence in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

The Saudi Crown Prince was accompanied by the Energy Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, State Minister and Member of the Council of Ministers Prince Turki bin Mohammad bin Fahd Al Saud, Interior Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Trade Minister Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi, Tourisme Minister Ahmed Al-Khatib and the State Minister for African Countries Affairs Ahmed Abdulaziz Kattan.

This visit comes to meet the invitation made by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, to visit Saudi Arabia.

This visit is an opportunity to give a new dynamic to the bilateral cooperation, open promising horizons for partnership and raise the volume of trade exchange between the two countries, as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the first Arab country that President Tebboune has visited since assuming the presidency of the country, to meet the invitation made by King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud.

The President of the Republic had indicated in a previous statement that visiting this country, which “we love”, was programmed at an earlier time, but that “the intensity of the internal calendar by opening several workshops was behind its postponement”.

During the 3-day visit, the leaders of the two countries will hold talks on ways and means to enhance bilateral cooperation, coordination and consultation on issues of common concern.

The visit would contribute to embodying the partnership and investment projects that were agreed upon during the intensive visits of senior officials of the two countries during the past years, as Algeria and Saudi Arabia seek to give new impetus to bilateral cooperation and open horizons for investors to raise the volume of trade exchange, and that proceeding from the distinguished relationships that bind the two countries and the common will of their leaders to expand the economic partnership.

This visit is expected to give renewed impetus to the various bilateral workshops emanating from the meeting of the 13th session of the Algerian-Saudi Joint Committee, held in Riyadh in April 2018, which culminated in signing three agreements for cooperation in the fields of investment, conformance and standardization and in the field of international relations as well.

Previously, Algeria hosted the works of the 12th session of the Algerian-Saudi Joint Committee in February 2017.

Saudi Arabia desires to establish strategic investment partnerships with Algeria to push economic ties and promote them to the level of political relationships between the two countries, while Algeria expresses readiness to cooperate with Riyadh in all economic fields, especially industrial ones, which have recorded significant progress during the past years.

The two countries are also seeking to establish partnerships in the fields of hydrocarbons, petrochemicals, agriculture, industry, knowledge economy and tourism, all of which are sectors in which Algeria supports investment with multiple facilities.

Saudi Arabia is among the most important partners of Algeria, as the value of imports during the first 9 months of last year reached $ 473 million.

The visit will also be an opportunity to discuss and exchange views on Arab and international political and economic issues of common concern, foremost of which is the Palestinian issue and the situations in some sister countries, in addition to developments in the oil market.

In this regard, the Energy Minister, Mohamed Arkab, recently revealed that there is “deep” thinking about a second additional reduction of oil production by the “OPEC” group during the period between February and June 2020 to add balance to the market and support prices, explaining that the size of the reduction “has not been determined yet” and that consultations are “ongoing” with the OPEC countries and outside it, and therefore the determination of the size of these additional reductions will be “according to the capabilities that are available to all countries”.

It should be noted that the Saudi Crown Prince, Muhammad bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, had made an official visit to Algeria in December 2018 at the head of a high-level delegation that included members of the government, businessmen and prominent Saudi personalities, and before that the Saudi Interior Minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, made an official visit to Algeria in March 2018.

During the visit of the Saudi Crown Prince, the Algerian-Saudi Business Council was convened, the work of which culminated in an agreement to increase the flow of Saudi investments to Algeria in the coming years provided that the industrial sector holds a large share of it, while promising investments in the agricultural and tourism sectors.