Ambassador Bernard Emié: “France And Algeria Need Each Other”

France’s ambassador to Algeria, Bernard Emié, defended the French presence in Algeria in various fields of endeavour.

In fact, 24 hours after the second Algerian-British Business Forum during which three cooperation agreements were signed with Great Britain in the areas of fiscal and trade exchanges between the chambers of commerce of the two countries and education, the French Ambassador responded by stating that France is also a strategic partner of Algeria.

It was on the sidelines of a broad-based meeting organized by the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN), during a study trip to Algeria by a delegation of the French National Institute of Advanced Security Studies and of justice, the senior French diplomat declared that the progress made by Algeria and France is “striking,” stressing that it is the security front where the bilateral partnership is “the most spectacular, the most concrete and most operational”.

In this sense, Mr Bernard Emié said: “I can say that the path between our two countries is striking, as evidenced by the recent Inter-governmental High-level Committee (CIHN) held last April that allowed to take stock and identify a very ambitious roadmap”, while revealing that more than 30 agreements were signed in April during the proceedings of the committee, relating in particular to security and justice, where hundreds of actions per year are conducted in collaboration with Algeria.

He also referred to the commitment of the Algerian authorities in their jurisdictions to build an exceptional partnership keenly desired by both the Algerian and French Presidents, since the state visit of the latter in 2012 in Algeria.

Mr. Emié said the effectiveness of “our cooperation covers the full range of internal security for our police, our Gendarmerie forces and our civil protection units as part of the bolstering of an institutional and technical cooperation made more efficient and more confident.”

He added that the mainstreaming was “characteristic of this cooperation” and this particular approach wanted by the General Director of the DGSN compares “our potential in such fundamental themes as crisis management and road safety.”

Mr. Bernard Emié finally underscored that the two countries had recently fostered under the leadership of Bernard Cazeneuve, French Interior Minister and in charge of worship and the Algerian Minister of Religious Affairs and Endowments, Mohamed Aissa, very useful exchanges in particular how best to train the most proficient Algerian imams or religious preachers who’ll go on assignment to France in a bid to counter the “radical discourse there”.