France's justice minister will head to Algeria next week to discuss improving cooperation and the fate of a detained French journalist, his office said Saturday, as ties warm following a diplomatic spat.
"The purpose of this trip is to work on opening a new chapter in judicial cooperation," Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin's office said of the trip planned for Monday.
But jailed reporter Christophe Gleizes would also be a "major topic," it said.
Gleizes, 37, was arrested in May 2024 while reporting on a football club in Algeria's Kabylia region and sentenced to seven years in jail in June last year for "glorifying terrorism".
Relations between France and its former colony became rocky after Paris in 2024 officially backed Moroccan sovereignty over the disputed Western Sahara region, where Algeria supports the pro-independence Polisario Front.
