France Speeds Up The Rapprochement With Algeria

Hotel de Matignon (French Prime Minister’s residence) has scheduled the visit of Elisabeth Borne, to Algeria on October 9,10, a visit that will be an opportunity to embody the agreements signed by French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to Algeria at the end of last August.

The official announcement of the visit came about two weeks before it was scheduled, and observers read in this announcement, an attempt to block the way for the parties that tried to exploit the decision of the Algerian authorities to return about 500 calves imported from France, due to suspicions that they were infected with diseases, to hit the relations between Algeria and Paris, which returned to normal after a severe crisis.

Many outstanding issues were resolved by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron about a month ago, but the file that was mentioned as a priority on Elisabeth Borne’s agenda is related to increasing gas exports from Algeria to France, in light of a raging energy crisis, since the Russian special military operation in Ukraine.

On the sidelines of Macron’s visit to Algeria, Catherine McGregor, Engie’s CEO, which is Sonatrach’s partner and customer in the field of gas, signed a contract with Toufik Hakkar, Sonatrach’s CEO, to raise the Algerian gas exports to France by 50%. In what seems to be a French keenness to put this agreement into practice as soon as possible, and a reason for speeding up the visit of the second official in the French executive body, to Algeria.

Since the outbreak of the energy crisis in the European continent early this year, driven by the Russian-Ukrainian war in the east, the solidarity system in the European Union has been disrupted, and the race for positioning in the energy scene, especially with Algeria, has become remarkable, due to calculations related to geographical distance and diplomatic rapprochement, and what is clear is that the victim in this imbalance of solidarity is Spain that voluntarily slipped into a free crisis with Algeria.

The French move to exploit the rapprochement with Algeria to increase its gas imports is its tendency to contribute to satisfying the growing German need, after the partial closure of the Russian gas taps, at the expense of the Spanish desire, which collided with the French president’s refusal to revive the MidCat pipeline project linking between Spanish and German soil through French soil, in exchange for Paris’ commitment to supporting Berlin, by reactivating an abandoned French-German pipeline of the north-east, in the Moselle department.

French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne will travel to concretize with her Algerian counterpart Aïmene Benabderrahmane, in an intergovernmental committee, the “partnership” concluded between the presidents of the two countries at the end of August”, announced Matignon on Saturday.

“In line with the Algiers Joint Declaration for a renewed partnership between Algeria and France”, adopted during the visit of French President Emmanuel Macron at the end of August, “members of the French and Algerian governments will meet to reaffirm their determination to promote friendship between France and Algeria, and deepen bilateral cooperation in areas of common interest”, the source added.

“Elisabeth Borne will be accompanied by several members of the French government, and will co-chair with her Algerian counterpart Aïmene Benabderrahmane, the fifth session of the high-level intergovernmental committee (CIHN)”, it explained.

“The youth of both countries will be on the menu of this high-level intergovernmental committee, which will also make it possible to move forward on economic issues and ecological transition. A renewed, concrete and ambitious partnership”.

After months of the crisis, Abdelmadjid Tebboune and Emmanuel Macron signed on August 27 a joint agreement for the relaunch of bilateral relations, at the end of a three-day visit by the French president to Algeria.

During the French president’s visit, it was agreed to re-launch several committees, including the Algerian-French Joint Economic Committee and the Algerian-French Strategic Dialogue Committee, and to “intensify high-level visits”, and ease the strict visa system imposed on Algerians, in exchange for increased cooperation from Algeria in combating illegal immigration in addition to the creation of a committee of Algerian and French historians in search of a solution to the booby-trapped memory file.