German Chancellor Angela Merkel today is visiting Algeria to promote bilateral ties and discuss migration and the situation in neighboring Libya.
The high-point of Monday’s one-day visit is her meeting with Algerian President Abdel Aziz Bouteflika, 81, who is partially paralyzed from a stroke and rarely seen.
Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia greeted Merkel at the foot of her plane ahead of talks. Before that, she visited the hilltop memorial to “martyrs” who died in Algeria’s independence war with France that ended in 1962.
Germany was Algeria’s fourth largest commercial partner in 2017, with 200 German companies working in various sectors implanted in the North African country.
This was Merkel’s first visit to Algeria in a decade. Initially set for February 2017, it was postponed because Bouteflika was stricken with the flu.
