Saudi receives envoys of Benin and Algeria

The Secretary General’s statement came during his virtual meeting with Secretary General of the COMESA Chileshe Kapwepwe…reports Asian Lite News

Saudi Arabia’s assistant minister of state for African affairs, Ambassador Sami Al-Saleh, received Ambassador Adam Bagoudou of Benin in Riyadh on Thursday.

During their meeting — which followed Al-Saleh’s earlier talks with Algerian Ambassador to the Kingdom Mohamed Ali Boughazi — the two discussed diplomatic relations between the two countries and issues of mutual interest.

Earlier, Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Dr. Nayef Falah M. Al Hajraf stressed the importance of strengthening cooperation between the council and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), to serve common interests.

The Secretary General’s statement came during his virtual meeting with Secretary General of the COMESA Chileshe Kapwepwe.

During the meeting, the two discussed the importance of developing cooperation between the GCC and the COMESA in the economic, trade and development fields.

This cooperation aims to open African markets for GCC exports, increase investment rates and exchange views on economic developments, in addition to discussing the developments of a Memorandum of Understanding previously signed between both sides in 2010, which focused on economic cooperation, Saudi Press Agency reported.

Meanwhile, Algeria, Niger and Nigeria have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the construction of a gas pipeline across the Sahara Desert that will supply Europe with additional gas, said the Algerian Energy Minister.

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The signing ceremony was held in Algiers, capital of Algeria, in the presence of the Energy Ministers of the three African countries, and came in the wake of a trilateral meeting on the Trans-Saharan Gas-Pipeline (TSGP) on Thursday, Xinhua news agency reported.

“Today’s meeting follows two previous meetings respectively in Niamey in February and in Abuja in June,” Algerian Energy and Mines Minister Mohamed Arkab told reporters.

“We have taken a number of decisions and we are making remarkable advance in the construction of this strategic project,” he said.

The TSGP, a mega gas pipeline project linking Algeria, Niger and Nigeria, is expected to span 4,000 km and could send up to 30 billion cubic metres of natural gas per year.

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