Secretary of State for Defence Policy and Planning Valeriu Nicut started on Monday an official visit to Algeria during which he signed the Defence Cooperation Agreement and the Defence Classified Information Protection Agreement between the two relevant ministries. According to a press release of the Romanian Defence Ministry (MapN) , the signing of the two agreements is an important step to establish the bilateral legal framework and it opens the possibility of military cooperation between Romania and Algeria on projects of mutual interest in areas such as modernization of military equipment, exchange of information, development of scientific research and technology through the implementation of joint research and technology programmes, and staff training in military education institutions. Moreover, the Romanian secretary of state's visit agenda included a meeting with Secretary General of the Algerian Defence Ministry, Major General Mohamed Zenakhri. The two officials also hailed the re-launch of bilateral dialogue between the defence ministries and exchanged information on the security situation in the Extended Black Sea and Northern Africa area.