Algeria Maintains Neutrality And Sovereignty In Its Foreign Policy

Lurking diplomatic circles took advantage of President Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s visit to Russia and then to China to create the impression that Algeria had abandoned its usual principle of neutrality in its foreign policy, which does not target vital Western interests, first and foremost those of the United States of America.
The US Assistant Secretary of State for International Organizations, Michelle Sison, arrived in Algeria on Tuesday 25th July for a working visit where she was received by her Algerian counterpart, Ahmed Ataf, and the Minister of Justice, Keeper of the Seals, Abderachid Tabi, the second such visit in less than a year.
The two sides discussed areas of bilateral cooperation and strategic dialogue between Algeria and the United States of America, according to a statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in particular the prospects for strengthening coordination between the two countries in various international organizations and bodies of common affiliation, led by the Human Rights Council and the Security Council of the United Nations. They also reviewed the support of the American candidate for membership in the International Court of Justice, Sarah Cleveland, in anticipation of the elections to be held on November 9 at the United Nations.
The visit of the American official to Algeria came to confirm that the calculations on which these circles bet reaped nothing but disappointment, because Algeria’s foreign relations with the pole led by Russia and China are not new today, but rather go back decades, and yet its relations with the United States have not been affected.
And before President Tebboune’s visit to Beijing and Moscow, Algeria had reservations about many UN resolutions condemning the special Russian military operation in Ukraine, which was backed by the United States of America and its partners in the Western system, and yet the visits of American officials to Algeria did not stop and the calls between officials of the two countries did not stop.
Sison herself visited Algeria on January 23 and was received by the president of the National Council for Human Rights, Abdelmadjid Zaalani. Before leaving Algeria, she “welcomed” the efforts made by Algeria to improve its legal arsenal with regard to human rights and freedom of expression, as discussed by Wendy Sherman, US Deputy Secretary of State, with his Algerian counterpart in February of this year.
The US National Security Council’s coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, Brett McGurk, visited Algeria last December and was received by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and senior defense officials. And when the Russian-Ukrainian war was at its most intense situation, the American Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, Anthony Blinken, landed in Algeria at the end of March last year.
In the first half of this month, the American Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs invited his Algerian counterpart, Ahmed Ataf, according to a letter revealed by the Algerian Foreign Ministry, to carry out a working visit to Washington, and Michel Sisson’s visit came to prepare for this visit, which will be an opportunity to hold soon in the American capital the sixth session of the strategic dialogue between Algeria and the United States.
In the same context, preparations are underway for the convening of a business forum that will bring together major companies and businessmen in light of the new investment law through which Algeria hopes to attract more American capital, as well as the holding of the sixth session of the Algerian-American strategic dialogue, which will make it possible to assess the reality of multidimensional cooperation between Algeria and the United States of America.
The Algerian-American partnership is currently largely limited to the energy sector, which does not please Algeria, which hopes that the United States will contribute to broadening the horizons of this partnership in terms of cooperation on security issues and efforts to combat terrorism and transnational crime in North Africa and the Sahel region, as well as extending energy to the rest of the other sectors that create wealth and jobs so as to face up to the problem of unemployment.