Algerian Minister of Interior and Local Authorities Noureddine Bedoui affirmed Wednesday, in Sakiet Sidi Youssef in Tunisia, that the “common security challenges” imposed by the current circumstances on Algeria and Tunisia, particularly terrorism, smuggling and cross-border weapons and drugs trafficking, “require unified positions.”
In his speech on the occasion of the celebration of the 59th anniversary of the events of 8 February 1958, Bedoui affirmed that this stage “requires from us a high level of vigilance and coordination.”
According to Bedoui, facing these challenges is today “urgent and a top priority through existing operational mechanisms and the adoption of others which are more adapted to the magnitude of these crimes,” he added in the presence of Minister of Mujahedeen (War Veterans) Tayeb Zitouni, Secretary General of the National Organization of Mujahedeen Said Abadou and Algeria’s ambassador to Tunisia Abdelkader Hadjar, for Algeria, and Ministers of National Defence and Interior Ferhat Horchani and El Hedi Majdoub, respectively, for Tunisa.
The situation requires from us, as neighbouring countries, to “establish the bases of a firm cooperation to protect our borders and of an operational coordination to secure the border strip in the interest of the two countries’ citizens,” said the minister.
While expressing the need to step up the cooperation in order to secure the common borders between the Algerian and Tunisian peoples, who share the same fate and interests, the minister underlined the need to develop the areas of the border strip, calling the governors of border provinces and their Tunisian peers to hold more meetings to develop a road map comprising proposals to make from the border zone a common space for security and development on the basis of a new approach and concrete objectives.
