At the invitation of his Algerian counterpart, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, has been staying in Algeria since yesterday, August 25, 2022, for a 72-hour visit. Officially, the objective of this trip to the summit is to launch “a new bilateral agenda, built on trust and mutual respect” for the respective sovereignties of the two States. In this speech coated with diplomatic finesse, we perceive very clearly the issues of the moment which force the two countries which have rarely missed the opportunity to tear each other apart, to come together to weave a new web for their relations. On the French side, the socio-economic emergency today is to deal with the gas crisis born of the Russian-Ukrainian war. The surge in gas prices following Western sanctions against Putin’s country and, conversely, the closing of gas valves in retaliation for these sanctions by Russia, poses the greatest threat to European countries, including including France: that of dying of cold or hunger. Even if household purses keep this danger away for the time being, the fact remains that it hovers over the heads of Westerners like a sword of Damocles.
Powerful competitors also make eyes at Algeria
Algeria, which has huge gas reserves, is an important alternative in this context. And it is worth it that Emmanuel Macron, who had recently aroused the wrath of the Algerian authorities by accusing the country of having “built on a memorial rent maintained by the politico-military system”, swallows his pride as a leader of State to fetch the breath of fire necessary for his people. It was all the more urgent to do so as powerful competitors are also turning their eyes to Algeria, in this case the Chinese ogre towards which the country’s economy has largely turned. The other major reason that could explain the rapprochement between Paris and Algiers is, no doubt, the convergence of views between the two capitals on the Malian question. We remember that on the evening of last July 31, the Algerian Head of State had called on the military in power in Bamako to return as soon as possible to legality and to implement the Agreement of Alger. “As long as the Algiers Accord is not implemented, the problems in Mali will persist,” he added. This exit only brought water to the mill of the French president whose positions against the Malian junta, had ended up annoying Assimi Goïta and his comrades in arms who had no other solution than to divorce from with France. Macron therefore finds, in addition to Niger, an African ally in the Malian imbroglio and not the least. Algeria, in addition to having an umbilical link with some of the jihadist groups that mourn the Sahelian countries, shares 1,400 km of border with Mali, and took an active part in the peace agreement signed in 2015 between the rebellion independence of the North and Bamako.
Great nations stop at nothing to defend their interests
The country of Abdelmadjid Tebboune is therefore becoming an important fulcrum of French diplomacy in a Sahel where anti-French sentiment is today the most shared thing in public opinion. And it is well worth Emmanuel Macron’s detour to Algiers, especially since the Sahel remains a strategic and economic treasure for France. On the Algerian side, we also have everything to gain from this rapprochement with France, with which the country is linked by history and geography. Indeed, France hosts the largest of the Algerian diasporas and Macron’s visit should be an opportunity to settle the visa dispute which has recently damaged relations between the two countries. Economically, the long political crisis in Algeria has brought the country’s economy to an impasse and every opportunity is good for Abdelmadjid Tebboune to restart the machine of production, consumption and employment. Macron’s visit is also and finally an opportunity for Algeria to break somewhat the diplomatic isolation in which the country has settled for some time. That said, if this visit is part of a win-win partnership dynamic, the fact remains that the French President is venturing into perilous terrain where the susceptibility born since colonization and the war of independence of Algeria, is the main trap. Emmanuel Macron will therefore be followed very closely both by French opinion and by Algerian opinion; so strong are the memories of the past. We are therefore far from the classic scenario of the “great white chief”‘s excursions into his former colonies to pose as a giver of political moral lessons or to gratify his most helpful subjects with a few financial and economic gadgets. We have every reason to believe this in the sense that the subjects that annoy us, such as the question of human rights, which we know the Algerian regime cares about very much, or the heated relations with neighboring Morocco, will no doubt be carefully avoided. And it is all this that makes the charm of this visit from which the rest of the continent should draw two main lessons. The first is that the great nations stop at nothing to defend their interests. And the second is that independence is assumed. It does not defend itself fairly in sovereignist discourse as we see on the continent.
” The country ”