MOSCOW, June 15. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin highlighted the strategic role of bilateral relations at a Kremlin meeting with his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune on Thursday.

"The relationship with Algeria plays a special role for our country and is of strategic importance," the Russian leader said, adding that the relations date back to the mid-1950s, since when they have been "strategic, without any exaggeration."

Putin described as "very warm" the relationship between the Russian people and what he said was "the heroic and very courageous nation of Algeria, which had fought for its independence for years and won." Last year marked the 60th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Moscow and Algiers, he recalled.

"The Soviet Union provided major support to its Algerian friends in the war for independence, and in the initial period of Algeria’s independence, it contributed to making Algeria an independent and sovereign state while helping its economy to develop across a number of fields," the Russian president concluded.