Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron engaged in bilateral discussions on Thursday, held on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Italy.
The meeting was marked by warm interactions captured by photographers, according to Agence France-Presse.
The Algerian presidency announced via Facebook that President Tebboune welcomed Macron at his residence in Bari, Italy.
A video posted on social media showed the two leaders walking hand-in-hand through the garden of Tebboune’s residence, exchanging conversations and smiles before entering the meeting room for their discussions.
Details of the topics covered during the talks were not disclosed.
However, it is known that Tebboune and Macron had previously agreed in March for the Algerian President to visit Paris at the end of September or early October.
Tebboune’s visit to France has been postponed multiple times due to disagreements over the “memory file” related to France’s colonial past in Algeria (1830-1962).
This issue remains a significant challenge in the relations between the two nations.
Algeria demands a formal acknowledgment from France of the “crimes” committed during its colonial rule, the return of Algerian archives, and other looted properties, including the repatriation of the skulls of Algerian resistance fighters currently held in France.
France, on the other hand, has resisted issuing a formal apology for its colonial actions and cites legal constraints as a reason for not returning some of the looted items from Algeria.
For nearly two years, a joint Algerian-French committee composed of historians has been working on addressing the “memory file” in a scientific and apolitical manner.
This initiative was commissioned by both President Tebboune and President Macron.
