Official France Beguiles Algeria!

In the recent period, positions of warm praise from French officialdom towards Algeria, especially from sovereign ministries, have emerged, which also included extreme caution in dealing with Algerian internal issues in a way that was not common to French governments and officials before.

In this context, the French Minister of the Armed Forces stated that Algeria was a key partner in the stabilization of the Sahel region. “As regards the [other] partners who are less talked about, Algeria is an important player and our exchanges with this country are dense, in particular on the evolution and evaluation of the security situation, but also on the implementation of the peace and reconciliation agreement that was signed in Algiers in 2015,” said Florence Parly, during her hearing before a committee of the French Senate.

“We consider that Algeria is an important player in the Malian peace process and probably has the vocation to become even more so,” the French minister stressed, in response to questions from senators on the assessment and prospects of Operation Barkhane, six years after its launch. “There seems to have been a recent positive development on the Algerian side,” suggested the chairman of the commission, Senator Christian Cambon, before questioning the minister: “What can we expect from this country which is one of the sponsors of the Algiers agreements? What does Algeria wish to do in the field of political solutions?”

Referring to the situation on the ground, Florence Parly said that victory was far from certain. “I am not at all saying that victory is within reach, it is not a language that I personally use, because I am very cautious and I also think that these are words that endanger not only our own forces, but also the partner forces,” she warned.

“I think it is reasonable to underline all the efforts and progress that have been made, but as I said, it is still far too early to claim victory,” Parly insisted.

The French minister also mentioned the G5 Sahel, the Pau meeting and the forthcoming Nouakchott summit, the aim of which is to take stock of the situation in the region and, presumably, to pave the way for the establishment of the new force called “Takouba”, which will see the participation, this time, of many European countries, eleven of which have already made its creation official and six of which have undertaken to participate formally. In addition to France, these are Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, the Netherlands and Portugal.

Algeria refuses to take part in the G5 Sahel and is considering revising its military doctrine in its new Constitution so as to enable the National People’s Army (ANP) to intervene beyond its borders when the protection of the country’s interests so requires and when threats to the country’s security and stability so require. Is this the change of course to which the minister and the French senator alluded?
In a separate development, a few days ago, the French Interior Minister replied to a written senator’s question at the French senate which he took a year and four months to answer, saying that the French government does not have the right to comment on the march of the popular movement or Hirak, which is an Algerian internal issue, and considered that it is contrary to what was suggested in some French circles at the beginning of the popular movement that the internal situation in Algeria can provoke a mass influx of Algerian immigrants to the European continent, but their numbers actually declined dramatically in 2019.