The effort to strengthen the Indonesia — Algeria bilateral relation, exclusively on the inter-parliamentary relation, is discussed on the occasion of the official meeting between Indonesian Ambassador to Algeria, Yuli Mumpuni Widarso, and the President of the Algerian Senate / Council of the Nation (Conseil de la Nation / Majlis AI-Ummah), Hon. Mr.Abdelkader Bensalah in the premises of the Council, on Sunday, February 3'd, 2008. The President of the Senate is accompanied by the Director of the Foreign Relations of the Senate, Assia Bourougba and the Director of the Information and Press Relations of the Senate, while the Indonesian Ambassador is accompanied by the First Secretary on the Political Affairs of the Indonesian Embassy, Pof Yusuf Arifin.

The President of the Senate stated that the relation between both countries had been occurred since the Algerian independence struggle. This affectionate relation between the two countries shown by the Algerians, who consider the Indonesians as their brothers. In that regard, it is the time for both parliaments as the representation of the people, to foster the inter-parliamentary cooperation. The Indonesian Ambassador encouragingly responded those ideas and stated that the House of the Representatives of the Repbublic of Indonesia (Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Republik Indonesia) through its Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation Body has already had a_ program to materialize Indonesia — Algeria Inter-Parliamentary Committee. Indonesian Embassy in Algiers also looks forward to the foundation of such Committee, which could be take place in due time, to concretely fulfill the friendship relations with any particular cooperation in many fields.

The President of the Senate also expected on the expansion of the visits between parliaments of both countries. Concerning this matter, Algerian Parliament welcomed the intention of the Chairman of the Indonesian Consultative People's Assembly, Dr. Hidayat Nur Wahid to visit Alger in 2008. The President of the Senate had visited Indonesia in 2002 after the visit of the then Chairman of the Indonesian Consultative People's Assembly, Dr. Amien Rais to Algiers in 2001. The President of the Algerian People's National Assembly (Assemblee Populaire National), Mr. Ammar Saidani also had visited Indonesia as Head of Delegation on the General Assembly of the Inter Parliamentary Union in Bali, in April 2007. The most recent official visit of the Indonesian Parliament to Algeria was took place in December 2006 headed by the Deputy Speaker of the House Of the Representatives of the Republic Of Indonesia, Mr. Zaenal Ma'arif.

The President of the Senate also noticed on the participation of the Indonesian State-Owned Enterprise PT. Wijaya Karya in the development of the Algeria East-West Motorway Project, which cooperated with Japanese Consortium, COJAAL. Hopefully, Indonesia could broaden its participation on the development projects in Algeria. In that regard, the Senate will be fully encourage all the efforts on enhancing the bilateral cooperations.

Alger, 3 February 2008