RABAT - The land border between Morocco and Algeria closed seventeen years ago, will be reopened "sooner or later", said in Rabat Monday an Algerian minister during the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to strengthen the food safety between the two countries.
"As stated two days ago by our Minister of Foreign Affairs, it will happen (to reopen the land border) sooner or later," said Rachid Benaissa, Algerian Minister of Agriculture during a visit to Morocco.
"We are neighbours and brothers and we work for the strengthening of relations" between the two countries, he added about the Moroccan-Algerian land border, closed since 1994.
A document providing for cooperation in five years "to ensure food security" between Morocco and Algeria was signed in Rabat on the same day by the Algerian minister and his Moroccan counterpart Abdelaziz Akhanouch.
According to this document, the two countries plan to strengthen their cooperation in scientific research, production and plant breeding and the fight against desertification.
"The signing of this memorandum demonstrates our shared desire to develop our cooperation and partnership in agriculture and to improve food security," told reporters Rachid Benaissa.
For three months, Morocco and Algeria have exchanged visits of ministers which augurs well for a gradual warming of political relations in particular because of the frozen conflict in Western Sahara.