France’s foreign minister said yesterday that ties with Algeria were back to normal after he held talks with Algeria’s president following months of bickering that have hurt Paris’ economic and security interests in its former colony.
Ties between Paris and Algiers have been complicated for decades, but took a turn for the worse last July when President Emmanuel Macron angered Algeria by recognising a plan for autonomy for the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty.
A poor relationship has major security, economic and social repercussions: trade is extensive and some 10 per cent of France’s 68 million population has links to Algeria, according to French officials.
“We are reactivating as of today all the mechanisms of co-operation in all sectors. We are going back to normal and to repeat the words of President (Abdelmadjid) Tebboune: ‘the curtain is lifted’,” Jean-Noel Barrot said in a statement at the presidential palace in Algiers after the talk.
His visit comes after a call between Macron and his counterpart Tebboune on March 31, during which the two agreed to a broad roadmap to calm tensions.
French officials say Algiers had put obstacles to administrative authorisations and new financing for French firms operating in the country.
Nowhere was that felt more than in wheat imports. Traders say the diplomatic rift led Algerian grains agency OAIC to tacitly exclude French wheat and firms in its import tenders since October. OAIC has said it treats all suppliers fairly, applying technical requirements.
Barrot said he had specifically brought up the difficulties regarding economic exchanges, notably in the agrobusiness, automobile and maritime transport sectors.
“President Tebboune reassured me of his will to give them new impetus,” Barrot said.
Beyond business, the relationship has also soured to the point where security co-operation, including over Islamist militancy, stopped. The detention by Algiers in November of 80-year-old Franco-Algerian author Boualem Sansal also worsened the relationship.
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