Ansari arrives in Algeria

Vice President Hamid Ansari tonight arrived in Algeria for a two-day visit during which he will interact with the country's top leadership on various bilateral issues like anti-terror cooperation.
Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs Sujata Mehta said the issue of cross border terrorism emanating from across India's border will be raised during the bilateral meetings the Vice-President will have with Algeria's President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal and other top leadership.
She said terrorism is not new for Algeria and it has fought a very difficult terror group in the recent past.
"There will be meetings of minds to fight terrorism with all his interlocutors and counterparts," she said.

Algeria's President Bouteflika was the chief guest at the Republic Day celebrations in 2001.
Bilateral trade between India and Algeria stood at 1.5 billion per annum, majority of which are related to importing oil and oil products to India.