French Ambassador to Echorouk: “In one year, 400,000 Algerians obtained a visa for France”

This was tackled among other salient topics by the Ambassador of France in Algeria, His Excellency Bernard Emié, during an interview with “Echorouk”, during which he addressed several topical issues of common concern for the two countries.

A host of outstanding issues including the Algeria-France economic partnership, the bounden duty of memory, visas, judicial and security cooperation, diplomacy, counter-terrorism, the worrying situation prevailing in Libya, in Syria and in the Sahel countries were largely dealt with during this exclusive interview …

Mr. Bernard Emié said, in essence, during this encounter that the Algerian-French relations are very satisfactory at best for both countries and  this was made possible thanks to the pledges made to this effect by both President François Hollande and President Abdellaziz Bouteflika.

“In regional matters, we cooperate with Algeria in order to reach a definitive agreement settling for good the Malian crisis, because the stability in Mali is part of our common interests, he said.

“In this sense, Algeria and France are closely working together in the relentless fight against the scourge of terrorism, stressing that France is grateful for the active Algerian solidarity in the aftermath of the terror attacks of “Charlie Hebdo” and in Paris, where even Muslims died or were injured, because we share strong, dense and human relations with Algeria and other countries in the world”, he asserted.

“As evidence of that, the bilateral economic ties are exemplary, as France is ranked as Algeria’s first economic partner, according to the World Bank, and as a major cultural partner as well given that France was guest of honor at the latest successful Book Fair of Algiers known as ”SILA”.

“Although we have varying points of view in the tackling of some regional crises that are besetting some countries, our goal is the same, notably by fighting terrorism in a constructive spirit of dialogue and consultation in the best interest of our two friendly countries”, he added.

“It is also in this spirit that we must move forward, without denying a common past, certainly painful, because we share the same history and the same population now with dual nationality, because the latter belong to French society without distinction and our duty is to protect them and their property, and not to exclude them or marginalize them”, Mr Bernard Emié emphasized.

“And hence it is necessary to totally separate terrorism from religion, because the French people reject outright “Islamophobia” and condemn all attempts to confuse the two concepts and to make damaging conflations”, he explained.

Furthermore, the French Ambassador brought into focus the upcoming official visit to Algeria slated for next February, by French Prime Minister Manuel Valls, as part of the French-Algerian Joint cooperation Commission, saying that the bilateral economic relations will be shored up even further on the occasion in order to solidly enshrine our “win-win” partnership for the good of the two great nations, as he put it.