On the very day the first Morocco-Mauritania Economic Parliamentary Forum opened—Thursday, May 9, in Nouakchott—Algeria scheduled a strategic meeting of its own. The newly appointed Algerian ambassador met with Mohamed Zein El Abidine Cheikh Ahmed, president of the Mauritanian Employers' Union. According to the official news agency AMI, the talks focused on «ongoing preparations for the Annual Exhibition of Algerian Products in Nouakchott, scheduled from May 22 to 28», as well as an upcoming visit by a delegation of Algerian businesspeople expected at the end of June. The meeting also served to explore «priority economic sectors and opportunities available to Algerian investors, along with the incentives and benefits provided under the new investment code», the same source added. Algiers is keeping a close eye on the growing rapprochement between Rabat and Nouakchott—particularly in the economic sphere. Morocco and Mauritania are currently working to revise the bilateral trade agreement signed in 1986. Discussions on this revision took place on the sidelines of Moroccan Trade Week, led by a joint technical committee chaired by Mauritania's Minister of Commerce and Tourism, Zeinebou Mint Ahmednah, and Morocco's Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Omar Hjira.
