Chinese President Jiang Zemin said Thursday that China is willing to work with Algeria to build up strategic and cooperative relations, and promote consultation and coordination with Algeria, so as to safeguard the rightful rights and interests of developing countries.

Jiang made the remarks during talks with Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika this afternoon, who is here for a week-long State visit to China and the China-Africa Cooperation Forum.

Bouteflika said that Algeria places great importance on its relations with China, and is ready to establish such relations with Beijing, so as to deal with challenges in the international arena.

Extending a warm welcome to President Bouteflika, who is on his third China visit, Jiang said that during his visit to Algeria last year, he was moved and impressed by the warm reception granted by the Algerian government and people, adding that the Algerian people's friendly sentiment toward the Chinese people left him with a good impression of the Algerian people.

Bouteflika congratulated Jiang on the success of the China-Africa Cooperation Forum, which ended in Beijing Thursday.

Jiang said that the two countries have a traditional relationship of cooperation, and the people of the two countries had forged a deep friendship at a time when the Algerian people were fighting for national independence. Despite the changing international environment, he said, the two countries have understood and supported each other since the establishment of diplomatic relations more than 40 years ago.

In addition, the two countries have had fruitful cooperation in political, economic, military and other areas, setting a model for cooperation among developing countries, he said.

Jiang said the Chinese government speaks highly of the Algerian government's consistent adherence to the one-China policy, and is grateful for Algeria's continuous support for China in its foiling anti-China drafts in the UN Conference on Human Rights. He added that China congratulates Algeria on being elected a member state of the conference this year.

Bouteflika said under the new circumstances, the two countries should be able to strengthen their cooperative relationship in various fields, adding that during Jiang's 1999 visit to Algeria, he and Jiang reached an agreement on setting up an effective mechanism to promote bilateral relations, and economic and trade cooperation in particular. He said that Algeria hopes for progress to be made in bilateral economic and trade relations.

Jiang said that sound political relations between the two countries lay a solid foundation for economic and trade cooperation, to which China pays close attention.

Such relations have exhibited good momentum in recent years, Jiang said, and China is satisfied with it.

Jiang said that Algeria is a large energy producer, and China has a vast market and technology that Algeria needs, therefore, the two economies are highly complementary, and China will make efforts to create favorable conditions for cooperation in the field.

After the talks, the two countries signed an agreement on economic and technological cooperation.

Before the talks, Jiang presided over a welcoming ceremony in honor of Bouteflika.

(People’s Daily 10/13/2000)