France lifts military embargo from Algeria

The French minister of defense Michael Mary who is currently visiting Algeria, disclosed an agreement on military cooperation between Algeria and France following an embargo which lasted for 14 years.

She said in a press conference that her country lifted the embargo imposed on the weapons to Algeria and is ready for open cooperation in the military field. She called for convening a seminar for defense among the countries of the European Union to be attended by Algeria and the Arab Maghreb states.

The French minister did not disclose the subject of the agreement, but available information indicate finalizing a deal of selling French war planes and weapons to Algeria. The agreement is also presumed to cover training army officers and stops of warships in the two countries' ports and joint military exercises and selling weapons and the exchange of security information.

Michael Mary who met with the Algerian President Abdul Aziz Butaflika who also occupies the post of the defense minister and his foreign minister Abdul Aziz Balkhadem called on each Algiers and Paris to open up a new page and start cooperation altogether to withstand emerging international problems.

The French minister disclosed in statements she made at the foreign relations institutes in Algiers that Algerian- French relations were not easy during the past decades. She explained that it is ripe time now not to forget because what had happened is unforgettable but to open a new page. She said that the two countries should work together to fight terrorism. She described the visit which is considered the first for a French defense minister for Algeria since the evacuation of the French occupation in 1962 as historical and remarkable.

The visit of the French minister came following two visits made by the French ministers of foreign affairs and finance, as an embodiment of the special cooperation document signed between President Butaflika and Jacques Chirac in March 2003.