Let’s scale up our relations: Algeria

ALGERIA and Zimbabwe need to strengthen cooperation and in particular convene a meeting of their joint permanent commission of cooperation before President Mnangagwa visits as expected this year, Algerian Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mohamed Seoudi said yesterday.

Speaking after a courtesy call on Speaker of the National Assembly Advocate Jacob Mudenda, he said Zimbabwe and Algeria shared strong bilateral relations dating back to the days of Zimbabwe’s liberation war when Algeria provided logistical and other support to Zimbabwe’s fight for independence.

“Let me say at the beginning that I am very happy to be here as Algeria’s Ambassador to Zimbabwe and my role is to do all my best to strengthen our relations in all fields, be it political or economic cooperation,” said Mr Seoudi.

“I have visited the honourable Speaker and I find him as a man with very big advice. He knows Algeria very well and he knows the position and cooperation between the two Parliaments.

“Beyond that we should improve our cooperation and especially to try to do our best to have the meeting of the joint permanent commission of cooperation between our countries this year and that will be crowned by the visit of His Excellency, President Mnangagwa, to Algeria.

“The cooperation between our two countries is very wide and we have a lot of opportunities in all fields: in energy, in tourism, in agriculture, in education, even in health. All the fields are open and we hope all the authorities within those fields will do their best this year.”

Algeria has also offered scholarships to Zimbabwe’s students to study at its universities, especially in the fields of medicine, engineering and information and communication technologies.