Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron sealed the reconciliation between Paris and Algiers on Saturday August 27 by signing a joint statement calling for a “new irreversible dynamic” for their bilateral relationship, sixty years after the end of the Algerian war.
President Tebboune then greeted a “Excellent and successful visit”assuring that the arrival of the French head of state in Algeria had enabled “a rapprochement that would not have been possible without the very personality of President Macron”.
According to the Algerian president, who spoke in French, the two countries will “to act together in many areas outside of Algeria and France”. “This merger will allow us to go very, very far”, he assured.
“Permanent dialogue on all subjects”
Mr. Tebboune mentioned the very high level meeting which brought together in Algiers on Friday the presidents and the security services of the two countries, including the army. This was a first since the independence of Algeria in 1962. The president thus announced joint actions “in the interest of our geopolitical environment”. For “enhance their political dialogue”Paris and Algiers will also establish a “high cooperation council” at the level of Heads of State, provides for the declaration of Algiers.
According to the text, this “new privileged partnership” is “become a requirement dictated by the rise of uncertainties and the exacerbation of regional and international tensions”:
It provides a framework for designing a common vision and a closely concerted approach to facing new global challenges. [crises globales et régionales, changement climatique, préservation de la biodiversité, révolution numérique, santé…].
For Mr. Macron, the Algiers declaration will make it possible to ensure that “Intimacy is strengthened by having a permanent dialogue on all subjects. Including the subjects that prevented us from moving forward, because they kept coming back, memory for example”.
Joint Commission of Historians
After months of diplomatic crisis, in particular because of the memorial questions on the Algerian war, the presidents had announced from the first day of Mr. Macron’s visit on Thursday, a new dynamic in the bilateral relationship. In addition to the memory file around French colonization, the issue of visas poisoned the bilateral relationship when Paris decided, in the fall of 2021, to halve the number granted in Algeria, which was deemed not quick enough to readmit its nationals expelled from France.
The signing of a joint declaration for a “renewed, concrete and ambitious partnership” was added at the last minute to Mr. Macron’s programme. It will be“a new partnership for and by young people”had anticipated, on Friday, the French president, announcing already the acceptance of 8,000 more Algerian students this year in France, who will join an annual contingent of 30,000 young people.
It will also be a question of combating illegal immigration while easing the procedures for “families of dual nationals, artists, athletes, entrepreneurs and politicians who nurture the bilateral relationship”. A mixed commission of French and Algerian historians will also be created to ” to look at “ opposite the entire period of colonization, ” without taboo “. She “could be installed within fifteen to twenty days”Mr. Tebboune announced on Saturday.