Army chief of Staff General Saïd Chanegriha received Wednesday, September 7 a phone call from U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director William J. Burns, the Defense ministry said in a statement.

General Chanegriha and Mr. Burns discussed “their common interest to strengthen” security cooperation and coordination, according to the same source.

Both officials expressed their “satisfaction” with the level of security cooperation as contacts between the two countries intensified recently amid security concerns in the Sahel region. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Algeria and had a meeting with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in March 2022 amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Other recent, American high profile visits include the U.S. Under Secretary of State for arms control and international security, Bonnie Jenkins, who visited Algeria in March and also met with President Tebboune.

Algeria has long been a regional partner for the U.S. on security and counterterrorism matters. In his memoirs, former CIA chief George Tenet had revealed that during the September 11, 2001 attacks, former Algerian Intelligence chief Mohamed Mediene was at the Pentagon on a cooperation visit.