ALGIERS- The Speaker of the People’s National Assembly (APN), Brahim Boughali, held, on Monday at the headquarters of the Colombian Congress, a meeting with the President of the Colombian House of Representatives, David Racero, indicated an APN press release.
The meeting enabled the two parties “to examine the means of strengthening relations between the two countries, particularly on the parliamentary level”.
On this occasion, Mr. Boughali affirmed that “Algeria shares many common denominators mentioned in Mr. Gustavo Petro’s speech at the ceremony of his investiture as President of the Republic”, expressing ” the country’s readiness to develop a strategy joint action with the Colombian Chamber of Representatives with a view to contributing to the realization of projects of common interest”.
Mr. Boughali stressed that “the construction of privileged political relations requires strong economic relations”, arguing that this is “an approach that Algeria tends to carry out with the Republic of Colombia, knowing that the two countries have economic and commercial assets and play an important role at the regional level”.
For his part, Mr. David Racero affirmed that the Colombian Chamber of Representatives and the Algerian People’s National Assembly “can play an important role in the construction of privileged economic and trade relations between the two friendly countries, especially since the President-elect and the new government aspire to develop a new bilateral cooperation strategy”.
He indicated that the Colombia-Algeria parliamentary friendship group will be updated, which will strengthen work on the parliamentary level,” the document concluded.
Speaker of the People’s National Assembly Brahim Boughali conveyed the greetings of President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, to the new Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, on his inauguration, said a statement on Monday.
Representing, on Sunday in Bogota, the President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, at the investiture ceremony of the new Colombian President, Mr. Gustavo Petro, Mr. Boughali conveyed President Tebboune’s greetings to the President-elect, wishing him “success in his missions to lead the country towards more progress, development and peace”.
For his part, the Colombian president addressed his “greetings to Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune and to the great Algerian people”, added the same source.
The investiture ceremony was held at Bolivar Square (Bogota) in the presence of many presidents and their representatives.
It should be noted that the relations of friendship, solidarity and cooperation between Algeria and Colombia are distinguished with both friendly countries expressing, on different occasions, their common willingness to further anhance them through periodic bilateral consultations.
Moreover, these relations have recently been consolidated by significant progress in terms of the signing of agreements, high-level visits and the creation of an Algerian-Colombian parliamentary friendship group.
In May 2022, Algerian-Colombian Open Friendship Group was set up as part of the working visit paid by the Secretary General of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and National Community Abroad, Chakib Rachid Kaid to Bogota.
During his visit to Colombia, Mr. Kaid took part in the solemn ceremony of “the installation of the Colombian-Algerian Open Friendship Group” (currently composed of twelve members of the Colombian House of Representatives – Lower House), in the presence of members of the group, representatives of the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, members of the Algerian diplomatic mission in Bogota, and friends of Algeria. The Colombian Ambassador in Algiers also participated in this ceremony by videoconference.
The significance of this installation marking the history of friendship that binds the two brotherly peoples and the two sisterly countries was also highlighted.
On another level, the national community residing in Colombia celebrated the 60th anniversary of the two celebrations of the recovery of national sovereignty and youth, through which the Algerian ambassador to Colombia, Ahmed Hashemi recalled the symbolism of this celebration.
“I feel very proud in addressing to you and to all the worthy Algerian people, the hearty congratulations and the most sincere wishes on the occasion of the celebration of the sixtieth anniversary of independence,” the diplomat said in his speech.
“I would like to seize this opportunity, in order to reaffirm to you that the date of the 5th of July marks one of the most important halts in the history of the struggle of the Algerian people for the recovery of their national sovereignty looted after 132 years of iniquitous colonization. It is an occasion to express fidelity and recognition of those who sacrificed themselves with their pure blood so that our land and its children may live”.
