Shoukry receives Algerian counterpart to discuss Libyan crisis

Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukry held talks on Monday with Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdelkader Messahel during his current visit to Algeria to participate in the tripartite meeting on Libya, hosted by Algeria.

Spokesman of Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Abu Zaid said that, Shoukry congratulated his counterpart for his position in the news government, expressing the Egyptian wish for more coordination and cooperation between the two countries regarding mutual regional issues including Libyan crisis and fighting terrorism and extremism in the region.

Shoukry expressed his gratitude for the increase of Egyptian investments in Algeria which amounted to 4 billion dollars, and the low volume of negative commodity lists between the two countries, saying that the Egyptian government looks forward to the holding of the follow-up committee of the Higher Joint Committee as soon as possible to continue the implementation of the agreements signed between the two countries.
 
The spokesman said that, Messahel confirmed Algeria’s intention to hold the joint committee by the end of the year, and he looks forward for Shoukry’s meeting with the Algerian Prime Minister on Tuesday for to discuss more details about this joint committee. Messahel praised the relations between Egypt and Algeria, expressing his country’s wish to work on supporting these political and economic relations, to carry out the High Joint Committee recommendations which held its last session in 2014, and to revive the mechanism of political consultation between the two foreign ministers of the two countries.

The two ministers discussed the latest updates regarding the Libyan crisis during their meeting in preparation for the tripartite ministerial meeting, and went through the results of their countries communications with different Libyan parties, where Shoukry reconfirmed that, the political solution based on the Skhirat agreement is the only solution for the current Libyan crisis, stressing on the importance of coordination between Egypt and Algeria because they are the countries that are most affected by this crisis. Shoukry also confirmed the solid Egyptian stand from Arab issues including the Syrian crisis and The Palestinian case.

Abu Zaid said both parties stressed on the importance of bilateral coordination regarding current issues in Africa especially ones related to terrorism and 

the security on African Coast region, along with addressing the issue of reforming the League of Arab States. Foreign Minister Messahel briefed Shoukry on the situation in Mali and the movement of terrorist groups across the borders.