The Cuban Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces (FAR), Joaquín Quintas Sola, met on Monday with the Chief of Staff of the Algerian Army, Said Chanegriha, as part of an official visit to discuss the cooperative relations between the two countries.

During the welcome ceremony, Chanegriha explained that Cuba and Algeria are working on the partnership between their respective armies "through the establishment of a new dynamic in the field of military cooperation," which Quinta Solas hopes will be "fruitful and beneficial," reports the EFE agency.

Furthermore, the Algerian military leader identified among the objectives of both countries the establishment of a global movement to defend the interests of developing nations. He also spoke of cooperation based on "mutual assistance, solidarity, and support for oppressed peoples and just causes," among which he mentioned Palestine and Western Sahara.

The meeting took place after General Quintas Sola was received this Sunday by the Algerian Minister of Health, Abdelhak Saihi, who is also the co-chair of the Algeria-Cuba Intergovernmental Commission, as reported by Minrex on its website.

With Saihi, the Cuban Deputy Minister of the Armed Forces expects to sign an agreement on gynecology-obstetrics, ophthalmology, radiodiagnosis, and preventive medicine. Currently, over 700 Cuban doctors are being exploited in Algeria.

As expected, Quintas Sola thanked Saihi for the Algerian opposition to the U.S. embargo and for including the Cuban dictatorship on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

The third largest oil producer in Africa.

Algeria is the third largest oil producer in Africa, behind Nigeria and Angola, so the visit of the Cuban military high command days after the Island suffered a total blackout is seen as a plea for help to a country that is not in a position to lend a hand to anyone: hundreds of Algerians flee daily on makeshift boats to the Spanish coast, escaping poverty.

The visit of Quintas Sola comes at an unfortunate time. Algeria has just held elections similar to those in Venezuela. There are suspicions of fraud surrounding the September elections. After the voting, the authorities in the North African country announced a participation figure that doubled after the vote count was completed. The victory went to Abdelmayid Tebún, who was reelected at the age of 78.

"We have studied integers and prime numbers, but now mathematicians will have to study Algerian numbers," said Atmán Mazús, the Algerian opposition leader.

Algeria has a long-standing hostility with its neighbor Morocco, which advocates for an autonomy proposal for Western Sahara and recently reconciled with Israel. This context helps explain why the Palestinian and Sahrawi causes were mentioned during the conversation between high-ranking military officials from Cuba and Algeria.