President Saleh receives letter from French counterpart

SANA’A, Feb 17 (Saba)- President Ali Abdullah Saleh received on Sunday a letter from the French President Nicolas Sarkozy related to the bilateral relations and mutual cooperation between the two countries and means of enhancing them. In his letter, Sarkozy confirmed his country’s keenness to enhance the mutual cooperation and bilateral relations in the economic, military, industrial and cultural fields and exchange information and experiences in various areas. Sarkozy affirmed the importance of enhancing this cooperation, expressing pleasure over the achievements made by Yemen Liquid Natural Gas Company and French Total in the project of exploiting liquid gas in the country. The letter also focused on the aspects of cooperation ties between Yemen and France, particularly in the fields of security and fighting terrorism and piracy as well as an initiative for the cooperation between Yemen, France and Djibouti. It also included an invitation to President Saleh to visit France and Sarkuzy’s acceptable replay on Saleh’s invitation to visit Yemen. During his meeting with the French Senator, ex-culture minister Jack Lang, whom convoyed Sarkozy’s letter, President Saleh hailed the high level of mutual cooperation between Yemen and France in various terms, confirming the Yemeni adherence to develop these relations to serve the common interests. Saleh expressed unhappiness for news reports charged with Sarkozy would not shake hand with any leader does not recognizes Israel. For his part, Lang affirmed the importance of developing the joint cooperation between Yemen and France particularly in the economic, cultural, military and security fields. TD/YA Saba