His first visit to China during his tenure!, Cooperation on the 65th Anniversary of Diplomatic Relations | Algeria | China

China is Algeria

Trustworthy historical allies and partners"

Author: Wang Zhening

On the morning of July 17th, Algerian President Abdul Majid Teben's special plane arrived at Beijing Capital International Airport, marking his first visit to China during his tenure.

The special delegation should be invited by President Xi Jinping and will be on a five-day state visit.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that during the visit, President Xi Jinping will hold talks with President Teburn to jointly draw a blueprint for the future development of China-Arab relations and exchange in-depth views on international and regional issues of common concern.

Rich political background

Teben was born in 1945 in Almeshria, Nama Oblast, southwestern Algeria. His father is a member of the Algerian Muslim Urima Association and is also a soldier.

Teben has extensive political experience and has held multiple state and ministerial positions in different governments.

In 1969, he graduated from the National School of Administration with a major in Economics and Finance, and later entered the local government as the Secretary General of Jelefa Province.

From 1975 to 1992, he served as an official of local authorities. From 1983, he successively served as the governor of Adlar, Tiaret, and Tiziuzu provinces; In 1991, he was appointed as the ministerial level representative of the Ministry of the Interior responsible for local administrative affairs.

Teben first entered the government in 1999 as the Minister of Housing and Urbanization under then Prime Minister Ahmed Benbitur, and the following year as the Minister of Transport.

In 2001, he once again served as Minister of Housing and Urbanization in the Ali Benfilis government, and later represented then President Abdulaziz Bouteflika on occasional diplomatic missions to Iran and Syria.

For the next 10 years, Teben temporarily left the political stage. Until 2013, he was reappointed as Minister of Housing and Cities by Bouteflika.

After the parliamentary elections in May 2017, Bouteflika appointed Teppen as Prime Minister on the 24th of the same month to replace Selar. The Algerian political elites were surprised by this order, as they had originally expected Selar to be re elected.

However, less than three months into his tenure as Prime Minister, Bouteflika dismissed him and appointed Ahmed Uyahia to take over his position.

Afterwards, Teppen ran as an independent candidate in the presidential election in December 2019 and was elected president with 58% of the vote, defeating the candidates from two major political parties.

Facing enormous challenges

When Teben took office, he faced enormous challenges brought about by the turbulent situation in Algeria.

Since February 2019, large-scale demonstrations have erupted in various parts of Algeria, demanding changes to the existing political system and punishing corruption. This parade is also known as the Chirac Movement.

At his inauguration ceremony, Teppen stated that he will continue to combat corruption, promote industrial diversification in economic development, reduce unemployment rates, and reduce Algeria's excessive dependence on the oil and gas industry. In terms of diplomacy, Teben stated that he will establish friendly and cooperative relations with various countries.

On January 8, 2020, Teppen established a 17 member "Committee of Experts" to review the previous constitution and make necessary modifications. The committee led by Ahmed Rahaba is required to submit proposals directly to Teppen within the next two months.

The special edition also outlines seven axes that the committee should focus on, including strengthening civil rights, combating corruption, consolidating power balance, increasing parliamentary oversight, promoting judicial independence, and constitutionalizing elections.

The revised constitution was passed at the Council of Ministers on September 6, 2020, at the People's National Assembly on September 10, and at the National Assembly on September 12.

At the same time, Teben also instructed the Prime Minister to prepare a bill to oppose all forms of racism, regionalism, and hate speech based on political beliefs, religion, beliefs, or race.

Teben formed a new government in July 2021, with Ayman Benabdramane serving as Prime Minister.

On February 15th of the following year, due to the domestic unemployment rate exceeding 15%, the government announced that it would start providing subsidies to job seekers aged 19 to 40 from March, with the aim of safeguarding the dignity of young people.

During his tenure, in addition to taking proactive measures to deal with the turbulent situation, Teppen also carried out extensive diplomatic activities.

He attended the Libya summit held in Berlin in January 2020; In July 2021, he received Mohammad Yunis Menfi, Chairman of the Libyan Presidential Council, and stated that Algeria provided "comprehensive assistance" to Libya; On December 8th of the same year, the French Foreign Minister met with Teppen to discuss bilateral relations and peace between Libya and Mali; Meeting with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on March 30, 2022

On May 26th last year, during a state visit to Rome, Teppen agreed to increase natural gas supplies to Italy and Europe.

On July 18 of the same year, he signed an energy contract worth 4 billion euros with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi in Algiers to provide additional natural gas to Italy, making Algeria the largest natural gas supplier to Italy.

In September, he announced further diversification of the Algerian economy to increase non hydrocarbon exports.

Friendship with China has a long and lasting history

China and Algeria have a profound friendship.

Algeria, located in North Africa, had long been under French colonial rule. In the 1950s, the Algerian National Liberation Front led an armed struggle against colonial rule and established the Algerian Provisional Government on September 19, 1958. China became the first non Arab country to recognize the interim government of Algeria.

On December 20, 1958, China established diplomatic relations with Algeria. In 1962, the Algerian people achieved national independence and national liberation through arduous struggle.

As early as April 1963, China responded to Algeria's call for help by sending medical teams. This is the first medical team sent by China to aid foreign countries, and it is also the medical team with the largest number of people, longest duration, and greatest impact sent by China to foreign countries.

Afterwards, the two sides signed the first intergovernmental trade agreement in 1964, forming important trading partners.

Algeria is not only the only country that established diplomatic relations with China before independence, but has also made outstanding contributions to the restoration of China's legitimate seat in the United Nations. In 1971, Algeria and other countries proposed the "Two Arab Proposals" to restore China's legitimate seat in the United Nations.

Algeria became the first Arab country to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership with China.

Some scholars believe that in China's diplomacy with Algeria, Algeria is a strategic support country on par with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

In December 2017, at the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan, China, China successfully launched the Algerian No.1 communication satellite into orbit using the Long March 3B carrier rocket.

This is the first project of cooperation in the aerospace field between China and Algeria, and it is also an important achievement of Algeria's space planning from 2006 to 2020.

The then Algerian President Bouteflika and President Xi Jinping exchanged congratulatory messages, saying: "This is an important achievement of the successful cooperation between the Algerian Space Agency and a number of Chinese institutions."

In this historical context, Teben attaches great importance to the relationship between the two countries.

In recent years, China has maintained Algeria's position as the largest source of imports for many years, becoming Algeria's largest trading partner since 2019, with bilateral trade volume reaching nearly 4 billion US dollars in 2022.

Last year, Teppen stated that Algeria was preparing to join the BRICS mechanism and contribute its own efforts to promoting global development.

He expressed his hope to join as he wished, after all, Algeria also meets the relevant conditions required to enter the BRICS countries and has certain attractiveness.

At the same time, Algeria believes that "China is a trusted historical ally and cooperative partner of Algeria", and jointly promoting national economic development and people's happiness is the common development vision of China and Algeria.

Both countries are developing countries and important emerging market countries with significant influence.

China looks forward to working with the Arab side to deepen mutual trust, expand cooperation, enhance friendship, and promote greater development of the China Arab comprehensive strategic partnership, making greater contributions to promoting regional and even global security and stability, and enhancing solidarity and cooperation among developing countries.