Meeting In Madrid In Expectation Of The High-Level Summit With Algeria This Month

Algerian-Spanish relations are heading towards a new phase based on strengthening rapprochement and the intertwining of economic and commercial interests, after a difficult period experienced by bilateral relations in 2022, due to the sudden and radical change in the Spanish position on the Western Sahara issue, which, as is well known, caused significant damage to diplomatic, economic, and commercial relations that were not officially rectified until the beginning of the current year.

In this regard, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Spanish capital, Madrid, decided to organize a forum on October 14, aimed at highlighting the potential of the investment market in Algeria and the business opportunities therein, as the Spanish consider it a promising market, thanks to the volume of public investments and the process of economic diversification witnessed by the country, according to what the Spanish website specialized in economic affairs, Empresa Exterior, reported on Wednesday.

This activity precedes the holding of the High Joint Committee, expected this October in the Spanish capital, Madrid, based on the statement that concluded the meeting between the state Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and National Community Abroad, Ahmed Attaf, and his Spanish counterpart, Jose Manuel Albares, on the sidelines of the recent activities of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, USA, during the current week.

This forum aims, according to the organizing body’s statement, to provide a practical guide for Spanish companies on business opportunities in Algeria, the sectors with the greatest potential, and the practical aspects related to entering the Algerian market. Among the sectors of particular interest, according to the same source, are infrastructure, energy, food industries and agriculture, transport, logistics, and business-oriented services.

Participants in the meeting will include actors in the field of foreign trade and investment activities, as well as representatives from the Spanish Economic and Commercial Office in Algeria, the Spanish bank “Ares Bank”, the Spanish giant and Sonatrach’s primary partner active in the gas sector “Naturgy”, Air Algerie, and “Asicomex Global Partners”.

The organizers also aim, through this meeting, to attract Spanish companies and business people interested in the Algerian market, as well as Algerian companies with close ties to Spain, represented by Air Algerie, which ensures services related to air transport and logistical connectivity between the two countries, while “Ares Bank” ensures the financing of investment operations in Algeria.

In contrast, “Naturgy” is Sonatrach’s partner in the “Medgaz” pipeline that transports Algerian gas to Spain, owning 49% of the pipeline’s shares, compared to 51% for Sonatrach. Sonatrach also owns 4.1% of the shares of the Spanish giant “Naturgy”, and they are linked by long-term gas supply contracts signed in 2018 extending until 2030 with a volume of approximately 5 billion cubic meters per year.

What is striking about the title of this activity is that it describes Algeria as a strategic market for Spanish companies due to the volume of public investment, geographic proximity, and the process of diversifying the economy and modernizing industry. It comes before the expected Algerian-Spanish high-level meeting within this month, and therefore provides an important indicator of the agenda drawn by the leadership of the two countries in the last few months after nearly three years of an unprecedented crisis caused by the Spanish side, due to its sudden change of position on the Western Sahara issue in 2022.

The Spanish side is trying to regain the economic and commercial position it lost in Algeria due to the crisis that hit bilateral relations about four years ago, especially in light of the recorded political rapprochement, embodied by the visit of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, to Algeria on July 20, which officially turned the page on the repercussions of the crisis over the Spanish position on the Western Sahara issue.

The Algerian-Spanish rapprochement comes at a time when relations between Madrid and Rabat are experiencing a major crisis, embodied by the Moroccan regime’s management of the influx that hit the Spanish city of Ceuta by about 80,000 irregular Moroccan migrants, which many observers attributed to the Kingdom of Morocco’s dissatisfaction with the return of warmth to Algerian-Spanish relations, fearing that this would be at the expense of relations between Rabat and Madrid.