La Tribune: Balkhadem stresses strategic relations with France

Algeria's foreign minister Abdul Aziz Balkhadem has announced that Algeria and France seek to "build a strategic partnership."

In a statement to the Algerian French daily La Tribune issued yesterday, Balkhadem said that "relations between Algeria and France are not just ordinary." He added that the objective between Algeria and France should be from now on holding consultations and creating a dynamism of cooperation built on the economic side of interests balance and on the political side on consultation.

Balkhadem's statement, however, has come several days before the visit to be held by the French President Jacque Chirac to Algeria on March 2 through 4.