KAZAN, May 21 /TASS/. Algeria is confident that its military-technical cooperation with Russia will continue, the country’s Ambassador to Russia Smail Benamara told reporters on Friday on the sideline of a conference in Kazan.

"Relations [in the military-technical area] are long-standing and run deep," he said in response to a question from TASS. "It’s not just about weapons purchases, but also exercises, cooperation, data exchange. Of course, this will continue."

Partnership agreement

The ambassador also said Russia and Algeria were drafting a new strategic partnership agreement. "We are discussing a draft for strategic partnership," he said. "The old text that’s in force now dates back to 2001, meaning it’s more than 20 years old."

"We are now preparing a new text <...> in order to strengthen new areas of cooperation that weren’t mentioned in the previous text," he said in response to a wuestion from TASS. It’s possible that the new agreement will be signed when the Algerian president will visit Russia, Benamara said.

The ambassador made the comments at the Russia-Islamic World: KazanSummit 2022 international conference, which brought together representatives of 63 countries and 52 Russian regions. It’s happening in Kazan from May 19-21 and is aimed at reinforcing ties between Russia and the Islamic world.