Pretoria - President Jacob Zuma is to lead a South African delegation to the 5th session of the South Africa-Algeria Presidential Binational Commission (BNC).
The two-day meeting, which will kick off on Tuesday in Algeria, will serve as a platform for the two Heads of State to discuss broad bilateral and multilateral issues of mutual interest to the two countries.
The BNC was established by the Agreement of 22 September 2000 as a structured framework for co-operation, to promote political and socio-economic relations between the Republic of South Africa and the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria.
Six Technical Working Groups will report on progress made regarding the programmes of action agreed to.
The technical groups are: Quality of Life and Human Resources; People-to-people co-operation; Energy and Infrastructure; Natural Resources; Defence and Security and Trade and Investment.
The bilateral relations and co-operation between the two countries have contributed to the elevation of the Joint BNC to a full presidential level and further culminated in the conclusion of 26 bilateral agreements to date.
The 5th Session of the BNC is preceded by a Senior Officials Meeting which took place in South Africa from 30 - 31 March 2010.
International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Mourad Medelci, Algeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs, co-chaired the plenary session for the Senior Officials Meeting.
The respective Ministers are charged within the framework of the BNC to facilitate the implementation of the programme.
It is expected that the BNC will further provide an opportunity for all outstanding Agreements and Programmes of Action between the two countries to be finalised.