Arriving to a ceremonial welcome in this warm seafront capital of Africa’s largest country with which India has had an extended record of bilateral engagement and high-level visits, Vice-President Hamid Ansari hit the road running, going straight from the airport to the Square of Martyrs at the El Alia cemetery to lay a wreath on Monday evening.
The Vice-President and the accompanying delegation, including Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Mansukh L Mandavia, have a busy agenda during the three-day visit.
On Tuesday, Mr. Ansari started the day early and met the President of the National People’s Assembly, Mohamed Larkin Ould Khelifa, at the lower House of Parliament. The meeting lasted about an hour and is understood to have touched upon a number of issues of bilateral interest.
The Vice-president then met the President of the Upper Chamber, called the Council of Nations, Abdelkader Bensalah, for about an hour.
At both meetings, the two sides are understood to have agreed on the need to give a renewed impetus to the bilateral engagement and the dialogue process. Both countries are on the same page on a broad range of issues, an informed source told The Hindu .
Mr. Ansari then visited the historic Ketchoua Mosque. He also went to the Unesco World Heritage Site of Tipaza, where he was received by the Governor of the province.
The Ketchoua Mosque, built in 1612 during Ottoman rule, represents a unique fusion of Moorish and Byzantine architectural features. In 1845, under French rule, the grand structure facing the Mediterranean Sea was converted into a Catholic cathedral but it was reconverted in 1962. Algeria is today overwhelmingly Muslim, with an estimated 99 per cent of the population practising the religion.
Tipaza, the other site that Mr. Ansari visited, was an ancient sea-trading post that was conquered by the Romans and turned into a military colony. Under Roman rule, the city, at one point with a population of 20,000, acquired significant commercial and military clout. But a conquest by Vandals in 429 put paid to its glory days.
Notwithstanding its many historic, picturesque and interesting assets, Algeria has low tourist traffic, a situation the country is working to improve. The spectacular view from the hotel room window, day and night, of the crescent marina chock-a-block with boats and larger vessels, and other historic vestiges all around, by itself makes this appear to be a more-than-feasible proposition.
More substantive business, including meetings with Algerian President (since 1999) Abdelaziz Bouteflika and Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal, awaited Mr. Ansari on Wednesday. Given Algeria’s substantial oil and gas and also phosphate deposits, India expects to work with the country to add significant fertilizer capacity. More than four-fifths of the land area of Algeria is covered by the Sahara Desert. Oil and gas were discovered in 1950, and then the French colonisers were forced to exit in 1962.
The bloody Algerian War of Independence, that went on from 1954 through 1962, chiefly led by the National Liberation Front (FLN) claimed an estimated million lives. France had invaded and colonised Algeria in 1834.
