Talks between Russia and Algeria to open direct flights
Ech-Chorouk, on Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Russian government assigned the ministry of transport to hold talks with Algeria to sign an official convention for the opening of direct flights between Moscow and Algiers.
These new Russian endeavours come within cooperation agreements between former Soviet Union and Algeria in many fields.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin paid a state visit to Algeria in March 2006. He held talks with his Algerian counterpart, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika and signed a number of conventions related to the reinforcement of commercial, economic and financial relationships.
The talks also came up with an agreement on writing off Algeria’s debts to Russia, which are estimated at $4.7 billion. In return for this, Algeria agreed to buy goods and services from Russia to a value equalling the amount of these debts.
The last meeting between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Abdelaziz Bouteflika was organised in the frame of a working meeting for the G8 summit at at Heiligendamm, few weeks ago.
A spokesman for the Russian President said talks in that meeting focused on different aspects of the relationships between Russia and Algeria.
The decision of the Russian government to open direct flights between Algiers and Moscow came to concretise cooperation between Algeria and Russia.
This cooperation was reflected, for instance, in the signature of conventions between the Russian energy company Gazprom and the Algerian petroleum company Sonatrach to develop comprehensive cooperation in oil and gas field.
In this regard, Russian foreign affairs minister said Algeria and Russia that export the biggest part of their gas production to Europe have a mutual interest to work to gather and coordinate their efforts in the international market.
