A strategic Assessment Of “NATO” Concerned About Algerian Gas Card

An intelligence document claimed that the strategic assessment within NATO considers Algeria to represent a “security threat to Europe”, according to what was published by the German version of the American news website “Business Insider”.

In this document, which dates back to the beginning of June, the Atlantic Political-Military Alliance identified the source of the threat as from Algerian gas shipments to southern European countries, especially to Spain.

The NATO strategic assessment also claims that there is a risk that Algeria will use gas shipments as a means of political pressure, like Russia, and the report claimed, “This would pose a risk to Europe’s political and economic resilience, which threatens Algeria’s position as a reliable supplier of energy to Europe”.

The document does not mention a solution to NATO’s vision for dealing with this emerging situation, but it notes that for many years energy security has been viewed as an “important factor in foreign and security policy, including within NATO”.

The measures from Algeria, which the document described as “retaliatory”, come in the context of escalating diplomatic tensions between Algeria and Spain over the issue of Western Sahara.
The report added that Madrid, after choosing for a long time a neutral position on this very sensitive issue, moved, on March 18, to sharply change its position, through its public support for the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara.

The issuance of this innocuous report coincided with the direction of the government of Pedro Sanchez towards a new slip, represented in seeking to involve the North Atlantic Treaty Organization “NATO”, as a member of it, in the diplomatic and economic crisis with Algeria, which indicates the inability of the Sanchez government to deal with the problem it triggered with Algeria, and the latter’s assertion that “a new government must be awaited in Spain to end the current crisis”.

In this regard, the Spanish newspaper “El Mundo” reported, last week, that “Madrid will ask NATO to act against blackmail with immigration and energy across its southern borders,” during the summit it is hosting at the end of this month, by trying to include these two issues “within the new security concept” to the Atlantic alliance that will be approved at the next summit”.

The report contradicts its talk about Algeria’s use of gas as a pressure card, with the evidence that confirms that Algeria is a “reliable partner” in the field of energy, and this paper is never used to settle political differences, or to win over Western capitals in some issues and files, with assurances from European countries themselves.

International reports also confirm Algeria’s “reliable partner” status, which was confirmed by a report on the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC), that Algeria is on the list of countries with “high reliability” in providing gas supplies to its customers.

According to a report by the organization on “developments of liquefied natural gas and hydrogen during the first quarter of 2022”, to the various Algerian gas supplies to the countries that have committed themselves with them within the framework of the agreements concluded, indicating to this effect that “Algerian exports remain within the usual quarterly range, which ranges between 2.5 million tons and 3 million tons.

What is also refuted in the report is Spain’s acknowledgment that Algeria is a reliable partner in the field of energy, which was expressed by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez himself in a telephone conversation with President of the Republic, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, at the beginning of last March.

President Tebboune had affirmed that Algeria has proven for more than half a century that it is a reliable distributor and supplier of natural gas and is still determined to stay for that. The establishment of the world’s first LNG export terminal and the delivery of the first commercial shipment of LNG to other terminals “wow us to testify that Algeria has since been at the forefront of progress in this industry”.

With the European-Russian dispute, Algeria witnessed continuous visits from senior Western officials, including US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, and others.
The discussions that took place during these visits focused on how Algeria can contribute to European energy security, and the extent of its ability to shore up production of natural gas in the future, given that Algeria is a “reliable partner”.