Algeria supports Russia’s efforts towards forming broad anti-terror front — Lavrov

ALGIERS, February 29. /TASS/. Algeria supports Russia’s efforts towards the formation of a broad anti-terror front, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday after talks with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

"We discussed in detail the problems of the Middle East and North Africa. The president voiced full support to Russia’s efforts toward the formation of a broad anti-terrorist front in line with the initiative advanced by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015," he said at a news conference. "The president also supported our efforts to promote Syrian settlement within the International Syria Support Group which is co-chaired by Russia and the United States."

"We share the position that the United Nations-endorsed resolutions of the Syria Support Group are to be fully implemented without any preliminary conditions and with understanding that in order to exterminate Islamic State, Jabhat al-Nusra [terrorist organizations outlawed in Russia - TASS] and the like it is necessary to block illegal trafficking of weapons and gunmen to Syria and Iraq," Lavrov stressed.

Cooperation plans

According to Lavrov, Russia and Algeria have mapped out a particular plan of trade, economic, military and technical cooperation.

"The main result of the negotiations is a particular confirmation by the two sides of the full adherence to the principles of strategic partnership, outlined in the declaration of 2001 during the visit of President Bouteflika to Russia," Lavrov said following the meeting with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

According to the minister, "particular plans concerning trade, economic, military, technical and humanitarian cooperation" were shaped.

"We have decided on the forms of better contacts between the two countries," he said.

Cooperation within the framework of Gas Exporting Countries Forum

The Algerian President confirmed interest in cooperation with Russia in the framework of the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries, and in maintaining regular contacts on the analysis of the situation in the global oil markets, Lavrov stated after the talks.

"Particular attention was paid to the energy sector, where we have already established strong links between a number of Russian companies and the Algerian public corporation Sonatrach. There is great interest from the part of other Russian economic operators in establishing partnerships with Algerian colleagues," Russian foreign minister said.

According to him, the Algerian President, "also confirmed the interest of his government in close cooperation between the two countries in the framework of the Forum of Gas Exporting Countries, and in maintaining regular contacts on the analysis of the situation in the global oil markets".

Stronger partnership with Russia

Algeria and Russia enjoy positive relations, Algerian Foreign Minister Ramatane Lamamra said on Monday after talks with his visiting Russian counterpart, urging stronger partnership of the two countries.

The two countries "have made major moves towards establishing strategic partnership in different spheres," he said, marking a need "to expand this partnership keeping in mind the demands of the Algerian economy and economic possibilities of Russia".

The top diplomat said Sergey Lavrov’s fourth visit to Algeria was "timely and aimed at strengthening bilateral cooperation".

In earlier remarks, Sergey Lavrov said Russia and Algeria shared the position that crises should be settled on the basis of international law.

The Russian diplomat stressed that the key task of today was to implement the agreements geared towards the implementation of the Strategic Partnership Declaration of 2001. "Today, we expressed common opinion that we have perfect perspectives to expand the activities of the intergovernmental economic cooperation commission in the sphere of military technical cooperation," he said.

"We paid special attention to efforts to create maximum favorable external environment to expand partnership with due account of growing threats in the region," Lavrov noted.

Restoration of Libyan statehood

Russia and Algeria both believe it is necessary to restore Libya's statehood through a truly national dialog, Sergey Lavrov noted.

"It was important for us to hear assessment of the Algerian president and other interlocutors concerning the situation in Libya, where effort is made to overcome a very deep crisis of statehood that broke out after NATO’s illegal action against the Libyan government in 2011," the Russian diplomat said.

"The consequences of this reckless scheme are still felt in the area of Sahel, where a tendency to destabilization is seen, notably in connection with an infiltration of gunmen and inflow of weapons from Libya. These consequences are also seen in Europe, as one of the prime causes of the crisis with illegal migrants is disintegration of the Libyan state," Lavrov went on.

"Our common stance is that it is necessary to restore Libyan statehood through organizing a truly national dialog that would involve all without exception forces: political military that exist in Libya at the moment," the top Russian diplomat said.

"We are also united in believing that while surmounting manifestations of terrorism, extremism and violence, be it in Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq or any other country of the region, it is necessary to start looking into initial causes of all these tragic events as a single package. They are in attempts to interfere in domestic affairs of sovereign states, impose recipes from outside, promote the concept of regime change as it happened earlier under the slogan of humanitarian intervention, while now attempts are made to do it under the slogan of fight against violent extremism," the Russian minister added.

He also said he had agreed with the Algerian president "to boost the channels of trust-based dialog on all aspects of problems of the Middle East and North Africa region" and expressed confidence that the visit would help develop strategic partnership relations between the countries.