Algeria wants to work more closely with Indonesia to fight terror
Algeria wants to work more closely with Indonesia to fight terror
Agence France-Presse, Algiers
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has called at a dinner
honoring visiting Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri for
greater cooperation between the two countries in the fight
against terrorism, the Algerian news agency reported on Friday.
"Together, we must take up the challenge represented by
terrorism, through enhanced cooperation between our two countries
and by coordinating our efforts on an international scale," the
APS agency reported Bouteflika as saying at a dinner on Thursday
evening.
Megawati arrived in Algeria on Thursday for a four-day
official visit, the first ever by an Indonesian head of state
since Algeria won independence from France in 1962.
Indonesia has the largest Muslim population of any country in
the world, while the Algerian authorities have since 1992 been
battling radical Islamic insurgents who want to replace the
secular government with a Muslim fundamentalist regime.
Toasting Megawati on Thursday, Bouteflika said that Algeria
and Indonesia "are faced today with a major challenge that
threatens our institutions and is opposed to their objectives of
development and progress."
Algeria, he said, had repeatedly called for "effective
international cooperation" to fight terrorism "in the interest of
the security, stability and prosperity of the world's peoples."
"The intensification of the fight against terrorism by my
country should not... create confusion between the crimes of
terrorist groups and Islam, a religion of peace, equity,
tolerance and which respects human dignity," Bouteflika stressed.
Megawati and Bouteflika were scheduled late Friday to visit a
major steel works, hailed as one of the flagship factories of
Algerian industry, in the northeastern city of Annaba Friday.
The huge steel works, built under the regime of former
president Houari Boumediene, who ruled Algeria from 1965 to 1978,
has been crippled by financial and management difficulties.
During Megawati's visit, the two sides are also expected to
conclude a major contract between Algerian oil company Sonatrach
and its Indonesian counterpart, Pertamina.
The Indonesian leader's visit is part of a tour which will
also take her to Hungary, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Egypt.