Paris Flirting With Algeria After Expulsion of its Troops From Mali

After the French military presence in the Sahel region, especially in Mali, reached a dead end, France directed its efforts towards Algeria to help it out of the predicament in which it had fallen, as revealed by Anne-Claire Legendre, the Spokesperson, Director of Communication and Press at Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs.

Legendre flirted with Algeria, in statements reported by the French public channel TV5 Monde: “Algeria is part of the solution in Mali because it (Algeria) is the one that engineered the Algiers Accords, which are considered one of the main pillars of Mali’s security and stability, and helped it return to a state of sovereignty. So, we need our Algerian partners, and they are one of our partners who we are consulting with”.

Previously, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the National Community Abroad, Ramtane Lamamra, expressed his satisfaction that bilateral relations entered an upward pace and hoped that they will improve for better, in an interview with Radio France International “RFI” and “France24” on the sidelines of the recent summit of African Union Heads of States in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Abeba.

The French official did not talk about the nature of the assistance that Paris is waiting for from Algeria regarding the crisis in Mali, knowing that Algeria reserved a request from the French President, to participate militarily alongside the French army in the southern neighbour.

The French need for Algeria concerning the Mali issue may be represented in licensing French warplanes to fly into Algerian air defence zone, after the decision taken by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, at the end of next September, to ban the flying of French warplanes into Algerian airspace, following the irresponsible statements of French President Emmanuel Macron, in which he questioned the existence of an Algerian nation before the French occupation of Algeria in 1830, and caused a crisis due to which the Algerian ambassador to Paris was summoned to return to his country.

A spokesperson for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs also denied the existence of any “strife” towards Algeria by France, if Algeria turns towards Russia, about the rumours about the presence of “Wagner” mercenaries in Mali, and inferred in this regard the return of flights with Algeria, but without explaining the nature of these flights, as she put it, and added: “Relations are not tense at all… It is a necessary partnership for us.”

French President Emmanuel Macron announced the French soldiers will leave Mali within the next 4 or 6 months, after months of a tug-of-war between Paris and Bamako. However, the Malian side insisted on the immediate withdrawal of the French from Malian lands, placing more pressure on the former colonizer.

Even if the French authorities announced the withdrawal of their forces from Mali, they redistributed them in the countries of the Sahel region such as Niger, Burkina Faso and some other African countries, which means that it still urgently needs Algeria to allow it to fly its warplanes into this vital area for French influence.

Algeria’s Foreign Minister responded to a question by French media about the possibility of the return of French warplanes to fly into the Algerian airspace, saying that “this was a technical measure and does not last forever”, indicating that this issue is related to the improvement of bilateral relations, which began gradually to return to normal.