Algeria’s First Step Within The Chinese New Silk Road

Algeria signed, on Sunday, an agreement for economic and technical cooperation with the Chinese Agency for International Cooperation for Development, on the sidelines of a visit by a delegation from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, which can be considered “an Algerian first step within the new Chinese Silk Road”, or what is known as the “Road and Belt” initiative.

Algerian radio reported that the signing of this new agreement took place at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between the Secretary-General of the Ministry Chakib Rachid Kaid, the chairman of the Chinese Agency for International Cooperation for Development, Wang Xiaotao, who accompanies the member of the Political Bureau and the head of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, Yang Jiechi, on his official visit to Algeria, at the head of an important delegation, to strengthen and promote the existing friendship and cooperation relations between Algeria and China.

According to the same source, this two-day visit will be an opportunity for the two sides to evaluate the existing cooperation relations between the two countries in various fields and to discuss opportunities for their promotion and development, especially in the economic fields, including infrastructure, public works, transportation, trade and investment, and in the fields of higher education, scientific research and modern technologies, continuing coordination and solidarity between Algeria and Beijing in the context of combating the emerging coronavirus (Covid-19).

The signing of this agreement comes months after the government announced its intention to consolidate cooperation more and more with the countries that showed their support and solidarity with Algeria during the COVID19, especially China, with the Minister Abdelaziz Djerad’s personal affirmation that, after the global Corona crisis, Algeria must link its fate with fair international relations and that the priority is to protect the human being.

During the Corona pandemic, Chinese aid and donations continued to Algeria, especially medical equipment and devices such as masks, gloves, respirators, epidemic diagnostic equipment, and others, which were transported by the People’s National Army fleet in several batches from China.

As it is known, the new Chinese Silk Road Initiative, also known as the “Road and Belt Initiative”, is about a Chinese plan based on the ruins of the ancient Silk Road, and aims to connect China with the world by investing billions of dollars in infrastructure facilities along the ancient Silk Road to Algeria, Morocco and the rest of Africa, and this includes building ports, roads, railways, industrial areas and energy projects.

It is expected that China will have a hand in the construction and completion of the largest port in Algeria, which is the central port of Hamdania, near Cherchell, in the state of Tipaza, for 6 billion dollars.

Early on October, the Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Algeria, Li Lianhe, described, in his speech on the occasion of the 71st anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the Algerian-Chinese cooperation as an ideal and a model to be followed in the world, and that this year will be a “year of the fourth colours in bilateral relations between the two countries”.

According to the Beijing ambassador to Algeria, the two countries have strengthened pragmatic cooperation and brought it to the highest level despite the Corona pandemic, and most Chinese companies are still operating in Algeria despite the pandemic.

The Chinese ambassador asserted that Beijing firmly supports Algeria’s efforts to revive its social and economic development in the post-epidemic period and encourages Chinese companies to actively participate in the social and economic construction of Algeria, and it also wants to enhance strategic coordination between the two countries through the Chinese-Algerian construction of the Belt and Road initiative and the building of a new Algeria.

European circles, especially French, have expressed their annoyance about Algeria’s accession to the road and belt initiative (the new Silk Road), and a previous report of the French Senate stated that China is developing silk roads in a new economic and technological concept from Pakistan to Algeria and Morocco, which calls for French and European action to counter this Chinese expansion.