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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Head of the Republic of Algeria, friends,

I am delighted to meet with you and the delegation on the sidelines of today's event.

We attach great importance to developing an interstate strategic partnership with the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, which is based on strong traditions of a long-standing – I want to emphasise this – long-standing friendship and mutual respect.

The political dialogue is continuing uninterrupted. We remain in constant contact and are coordinating our efforts both bilaterally and at international platforms.

Algeria is one of Russia’s leading trade and economic partners in Africa and the Arab world. In 2018, trade grew by 4 percent to almost $5 billion. A mixed intergovernmental commission for trade, economic, scientific and technical cooperation is operational.

We are aware that major political events are taking place in Algeria. We sincerely wish success to the Algerian people in overcoming the current difficult transitional period.

We are confident that things will ultimately turn out well, and the Algerian people will benefit from it and will strengthen its statehood and sovereignty. All we can do for you, we will do, on the basis of traditional friendship and trust, which, I think, is extremely important in relations between states.

Once again, welcome to Russia and thank you for accepting our invitation and coming to the first ever Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi.

Head of State of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria Abdelkader Bensalah (retranslated): Thank you, Mr President,

I would like to thank you for the invitation and to congratulate you on the initiative to host such an event, as well as congratulate you on organising it well and gathering all African countries, all representatives of our continent, with the Russian leaders. We believe this is a very good time for the meeting, and we have thus proved the importance of the future development of relations between Russia and African countries.

With regard to bilateral relations, I, in turn, also see a very good level of relations across all areas. Hopefully, these relations will expand even more. I think that the intergovernmental commission has already identified specific areas, and we should strive to move forward.

Mr President,

I asked for a meeting with you and my main goal is to reassure you that the situation in Algeria is stable and we are in control of it, and we can, as a nation, move forward in the right direction. Of course, the media sometimes exaggerate the events unfolding in Algeria, and sometimes deliberately distort the actual situation

However, we can assure you that we have already drawn up a general plan and have almost completed its implementation. We, alongside the members of the Algerian public, have set up a free committee: the presidential administration and military institutions cannot influence it in any way, and it will have the main plan for organising elections on December 12.

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