Remarks Following the Meeting With President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Secretary of State
El Mouradia Palace
Algiers, Algeria
October 29, 2012
SECRETARY CLINTON:
First, let me say how pleased I am to be back in Algeria and to have
this chance to consult in depth with the President and (inaudible). I
want to thank the President for his hospitality in the time that he has
spent talking with me and that we will continue over lunch. We reviewed
our strong bilateral relationship, including the fact we had an
excellent Strategic Dialogue on a number of issues just last week in
Washington.
And we had an in-depth discussion of the region, particularly the situation in Mali. I very much appreciated the President’s analysis, based on his long experience, as to the many complicated factors that have to be addressed to deal with the internal insecurity in Mali and the terrorist and drug trafficking threat that is posed to the region and beyond. And we have agreed to continue with in-depth expert discussions, to work together bilaterally and with the region – along with the United Nations, and the African Union, and ECOWAS – to determine the most effective approaches that we should be taking.
So again, I thank the President for his time and very helpful observations, and I look forward to continuing our discussion on a matter that is of particular interest to us both.
Thank you very much.
U.S. State Department
Reuters quotes an anonymous US official:
And we had an in-depth discussion of the region, particularly the situation in Mali. I very much appreciated the President’s analysis, based on his long experience, as to the many complicated factors that have to be addressed to deal with the internal insecurity in Mali and the terrorist and drug trafficking threat that is posed to the region and beyond. And we have agreed to continue with in-depth expert discussions, to work together bilaterally and with the region – along with the United Nations, and the African Union, and ECOWAS – to determine the most effective approaches that we should be taking.
So again, I thank the President for his time and very helpful observations, and I look forward to continuing our discussion on a matter that is of particular interest to us both.
Thank you very much.
U.S. State Department
Reuters quotes an anonymous US official:
“The secretary underscored … that it is very clear that a political process and our counter-terrorism efforts in Mali need to work in parallel,” the official said.
“We have an awful lot at stake here, and an awful lot of common interests, and there’s a strong recognition that Algeria has to be a central part of the solution,” the senior U.S. official told reporters traveling with Clinton.
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