French ministers in charge of foreign affairs and finance met on Monday with their Algerian counterparts to seek how they could bolster bilateral partnership during the 5th Franco-Algerian Joint Economic Committee (COMEFA), the French foreign ministry said in a statement.

In the statement, French foreign and European affairs minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and finance minister Bruno Le Maire noted that this year's COMEFA aimed at taking stock of the two countries' economic cooperation and seeking ways to strengthen it.

"Several agreements should be signed on this occasion, in particular to initiate the establishment of a bilateral investment fund, but also in the areas of vocational training, agriculture and industrial risk management," they said, without elaborating.

Set up in 2013, the joint committee helped the two partners to realize "industrial projects that are mutually beneficial for both countries", notably in food processing, the automotive sector and transport activity, according to the statement.

In addition to business deals, discussions on strategic issues also topped the meeting in Paris where Le Drian and his Algerian counterpart Abdelkader Messahel met.

The two were scheduled to talk about "security and regional issues of mutual interest, in particular the situation in Libya, the Sahel, the fight against terrorism and smuggling, particularly of human beings", the statement said.

Algeria is France's main trading partner with a trade exchange of 8.3 billion euros (9.44 billion U.S. dollars) in 2017, official data showed.