Algeria Is Looking For Partners Away From France

• The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sabri Boukadoum, revealed that some European countries understand the Algerian demands to review some of the articles of the partnership agreement between Algeria and the European Union, noting to this effect, the absence of France, which had until recently been linked to Algeria as an “exceptional partnership” in the words of the former French President Francois Hollande.

• The Minister of Foreign Affairs, and in his statement to the Algerian News Agency, said: “During talks with representatives of many member states of the European Union, such as Germany, Italy, Portugal, and Hungary, the latter expressed their awareness of the imbalance of the Association Agreement that remains in the interest of Europe”.

• The words of the Algerian diplomatic chief, referring to some countries that understand the Algerian concerns in terms of partnership with the European Union, wanted to send an implicit message that the French side that does not understand the legitimate demands of Algeria, because there is a clause in the agreement that authorizes either party to request a review, if it is exposed to losses.

Algeria and Brussels agree that the Association Agreement has caused heavy losses to Algeria due to the imbalance in the trade balance, given the huge difference in the size of European institutions compared to their uncompetitive Algerian counterparts, which raised the volume of losses to nearly $ 30 billion, since the agreement entered into force in September 2005.

• The statements of the Foreign Minister confirm that Algeria is heading towards an economic break with the former colonial power, and this estrangement was evident through the signals carried by the visit of the Italian Foreign Minister, Luigi Di Maiyo, earlier this week to Algeria, marked by his visit to some infrastructure projects in the capital, such as the expansion of metro lines, as he called on Italian companies to invest heavily in Algeria.

• The Algerian authorities had refused to renew the contract of the French company “RATP” that was running the “metro or subway”, which expired at the beginning of last month, to be replaced by a public utility company, while it is expected that the contract of the French water company “Suez”, running SEAL will not be renewed.

The relevant contract for the water supply sector in the provinces of Algiers and Tipasa, will end at the end of April of next year.

• In the same context, Algeria proposed to Turkey the establishment of a mixed company conglomerate to enter international markets, coinciding with the beginning of preparations for launching an African free trade zone, next January, and this came during the meeting that brought together the Minister of Trade, Kamel Rezig, and his deputy in charge of foreign trade, Aissa Bekai, with the Turkish ambassador to Algeria, Mahienur Ozdemir Goktas, according to a statement issued by the ministry
They also spoke about “organizing meetings between businessmen of the two countries, to discuss new partnership opportunities after the Corona virus pandemic.”

• The Minister of Trade said that “all conditions are in place to scale up the volume of trade exchange between the two sides, especially after the entry into force of the African Free Trade Area in January,” and stressed “the necessity of activating the Algerian-Turkish Business Council”.

Turkey is considered one of the countries that are in great rivalry with France, due to many files and regional issues, and Italy has differences with Paris in many files, and the war of words between them reached unprecedented levels, when Italy recently accused France of stealing the wealth of its colonies in Africa.

This means that Algeria is moving towards consolidating its relations with the axis that is not friendly to Paris.