In a sign of warming Egypt-Algeria relations, President Hosni Mubarak traveled to Algeria Sunday morning to give his condolences to Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, whose brother passed away on Friday. Relations between the two Arab countries had been strained since two highly-charged football matches between their national teams during the African Cup tournament in November 2009 resulted in violence and mutual recrimination. Mubarak was accompanied on his trip by a high level delegation that included Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and Presidential Chief-of-Staff Zakaria Azmi. The trip marked the first visit by the Egyptian president to Algeria since the football crisis. Bouteflika was the first in line to greet Mubarak after the Egyptian president's plane touched down in the Algerian capital of Algiers. During the trip, Abul-Gheit also met his Algerian counterpart. "This was a courtesy visit," the Egyptian FM stated. Abul-Gheit went on to note that Mubarak and Bouteflika had recently held talks in the French city of Nice, where the two heads of state expressed their desire--and that of their people--to rebuild the strong, decades-long relationship between the two countries. Translated from the Arabic Edition.
