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.