Abdelmadjid Tebboune, president of Algeria, will travel to France in June, his office announced on Sunday, weeks after a diplomatic incident involving a French-Algerian activist.

The visit was originally scheduled for May but was postponed until June as a result of a phone discussion between Tebboune and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, according to the Algerian president.

Tebboune and Macron spoke about “ways of bolstering bilateral relations” and the impending visit scheduled for the second part of June during those discussions.

In early February, Algeria withdrew its ambassador from France, accusing its former colonial ruler of helping activist Amira Bouraoui flee the North African country.

The French-Algerian activist had been sentenced to two years in jail for “offending Islam” and insulting the Algerian president.

But Tebboune last month announced that the Algerian envoy would return to Paris, as the two countries sought to patch up relations that have repeatedly seen tensions erupt over the years.

Algerian-French ties fell into crisis in late 2021 after Macron questioned Algeria’s existence as a nation before the French occupation, and accused the government of fomenting “hatred towards France”.

But the two countries mended ties after a visit in August last year to Algeria by Macron, who signed with Tebboune a joint declaration to relaunch bilateral cooperation.

Algeria was a French colony for 130 years and gained its independence in 1962 after a devastating eight-year war.

French historians say half a million civilians and combatants died during the bloody war for independence, 400,000 of them Algerian. The Algerian authorities say 1.5 million were killed.