Butaflika in Tunisia to strengthen cooperation
Tunisia-Algeria, Politics, 6/29/2000

Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika arrived on Wednesday in Tunisia in a visit which will last for three days. The visit falls in the course of revitalizing the Arab Maghreb Union and strengthening economic relations between the two states.

Diplomatic sources in Tunisia expect that the summit of the two presidents will result in an announcement by Algeria to convene an Arab Maghreb summit to be held within the few coming days in Tunisia.

The visit of Butaflika came at the invitation of his Tunisian counterpart President Zein al-Abidin Bin Ali, who received his Algerian counterpart at the airport.

The visit of the Algerian President is the first since 1994.

Observers say that President Bin Ali might succeed in bringing together view points between Algeria and Morocco over the " Sahara issue" on the grounds that this issue has become now in the hands of the UN, a matter which would result in the possibility of convening the Maghreb summit that revitalizes the Union ( frozen since 5 years) which includes Algeria, Libya, Tunisia, Mauritania and Morocco.

The diplomatic sources stressed the need of eliminating disputes and establishing political stability in the region so as to facilitate the establishment of a solid economic relations among these states and with world countries which are willing to establish a partnership with the Arab Maghreb states.

The summit will also concentrate on bilateral relations, due to the strongly accelerated trade relations between the two states, besides the security coordination to strengthen the needed stability in all the union's member states.

Previous Stories:
  Butaflika today in Tunisia   (6/28/2000)
  Expected improvement in Tunisian- Algerian relations   (3/15/2000)
  Algerian president receives message from Tunisian peer   (3/7/2000)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search