Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune arrived in Türkiye on Wednesday for a three-day visit.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan gave a warm welcome to the president at the Esenboğa Airport in Ankara, holding hands with the 80-year-old leader, who made his second visit to the country in four years. On Thursday, a formal welcoming ceremony was held for the Algerian leader at the Presidential Complex.
The visit marks a new boost in developing relations between the two countries, which were set to be crowned with new agreements scheduled to be signed in the presence of Erdoğan and Tebboune.
Ahead of the meeting, the Turkish-Algerian Business Forum was held in Ankara with the participation of Turkish Trade Minister Ömer Bolat and Algerian Minister of Trade and Export Promotion Kamel Rezig. Speaking at the forum, Bolat said the two countries’ leaders set out a goal of reaching a bilateral trade volume of $10 billion, and they believed that 2026 would be the year of significant momentum in relations, especially in trade.
Turkish-Algerian ties go back to the Ottoman times, and although it downgraded in the second half of the 20th century due to Turkish support to France as Algeria sought independence, relations have overcome the challenges and have prospered in the past two decades.
Tebboune’s visit aims to deepen economic relations and shift regular cooperation to a more strategic partnership as Algeria’s role in the wider region grows. They tilt more to the economic side, though. Türkiye defined Algeria as the second biggest trade partner in Africa in 2023. In the same year, trade volume reached to $6.3 billion. Turkish companies have been active in the country in the past two decades, with contractors having a major share in 636 projects across the African country.
Bolat said on Thursday that Türkiye and Algeria have been negotiating for a preferential trade agreement for the past two years and hoped to finalize it by the end of 2026. Bolat said Algeria was the seventh largest partner of Türkiye in terms of contractors’ work and noted that the country had more than 1,600 Turkish investors. He noted that along with construction, Turkish investors concentrated on steel, iron market, chemical industry, cleaning products production and textile.
For his part, Rezig said the two countries had strategic relations, and they continued cooperation based on mutual trust and interests and in a manner benefiting stability and development. Rezig emphasized the importance of revitalizing trade between the two countries, stating that the partnership between Algeria and Türkiye has entered a deeper phase, and that steps such as encouraging mutual investments and cooperation in the industrial sector should be taken within this framework. Stating that all these efforts would lead the two countries toward commercial and economic integration, Rezig noted that bilateral talks are ongoing and that a possible agreement, especially regarding preferential trade, would bring about a significant transformation.
Rezig pointed out that more than 200 Algerian businesspeople participated in this forum, adding that efforts should now focus on concrete projects and that this opportunity should not be missed.
“We have always regarded Türkiye as a reliable economic partner. And the more we can expand areas of cooperation, particularly in industry, agriculture, mining, and infrastructure, which I especially emphasize, the more these become priorities for us. Through these relations, we can move toward a strategic and comprehensive partnership. Thanks to Mr. Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Mr. (President Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan, we will achieve these goals. The peoples of the two countries are brotherly peoples,” he said.
