The Chief of Staff of the People’s National Army, Major General Saïd Chengriha, received the Chief of Staff of the French Armies, Lieutenant General Francois Lecointre, today, Thursday, at the headquarters of the People’s National Army.
The meeting was attended by the Acting Secretary-General of the Ministry of National Defense, commanders of the national gendarmerie, heads of departments, central directors of the Ministry of National Defense and the staff of the People’s National Army, as well as members of the French military delegation.
On this occasion, the two parties held talks on the state of military cooperation between the two countries, and they exchanged views on issues of common interest.
Major General Chengriha affirmed that Algeria considers that the stability and security of its neighbors is closely linked to its security. Therefore, the country is making tremendous efforts by deploying military contingents on its entire borders, in order to ensure stability in the countries of the Mediterranean space, adding that for this purpose, and given the magnitude of threat that terrorism poses to Regional security and stability, Algeria has not failed to take initiatives, and to provide support to its neighbors, in order to coordinate efforts on the basis of a common view, through the initiative of the Joint Operational Staff Committee.
Major General Chengriha also seized the opportunity of the French military delegation’s visit to Algeria to address the problem of rehabilitating the two sites of Reggane and In Ikker, the two ancient French nuclear test sites.
In this regard, he stated: “I would also like to address the problematic of negotiations within the Algerian-French regiment on the sites of old nuclear tests and other experiments in the Algerian Sahara, as I expect your support during the 17th session of the Algerian-French joint regiment, to be held during May 2021, with the aim of sponsoring the final process of rehabilitating the sites of Reggane and In Ikker, as well as your support in this regard, by providing us with topographic maps, to enable us to determine the burial areas of contaminated, radioactive or chemical waste that have not yet been discovered”.
At the end of the meeting, the two parties exchanged symbolic gifts, after which Lieutenant General Francois Lecointre signed the Golden Record of the Staff of the People’s National Army, according to the communiqué indicating that at the end of the visit, the French military delegation laid a wreath at the martyr’s me
