ALGIERS, November 5. /TASS/. Russia and Algeria share the stance that any external pressure is unacceptable, Sergey Naryshkin, the speaker of the Russian State Duma lower parliament house, said on Wednesday.
"In the year of the 61st anniversary of the Algerian revolution, it is important to remember about the victims and objectively analyze the developments of that tragic spring. Ever since, rejection of any formats of external pressure has become a fundamental basis of relations between the two countries," he said at a roundtable meeting on historical and cultural aspects of the Russian-Algerian relations.
He said that from this point of view there could be no explaining or justifying the United States’ and NATO’s interference into the life of Libya, Syria and Iraq, which entailed a large-scale humanitarian disaster in the region.
"Algeria has always been an island of stability in North Africa and the Middle East, a state capable of swiftly and efficiently reacting to the existing geopolitical challenges, a firm advocate of general and lasting peace in the Middle East based on international law, and the peoples of our countries will always share this stance," Naryshkin said.
The Russian speaker recalled that European countries had turned down Algeria’s request for help in demining. "The Soviet side agreed to do this dangerous job free of charge. Our military specialists, field engineers rendered harmless about 1.5 million mines planted over the years of the war of 1954-1962," he said.