The move comes amid strained relations between France and the North African country which began deteriorating last July
French President Emmanuel Macron has spoken with Algerian leader Abdelmadjid Tebboune about the state of bilateral relations and tensions that have built up between the two countries in recent months, the Elysee Palace has announced.
The move comes at a time when France has suffered setbacks in several of its former colonies, including Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger due to accusations of meddling and military failures.
In a joint statement late Monday, the Elysee said Macron and Tebboune held a “long, frank, and friendly” talk on the phone and agreed to maintain dialogue to resolve issues, including resuming security cooperation.
“They agreed to work closely together to give this relationship a new ambition in this spirit of friendship, allowing all aspects of the bilateral relationship to be addressed with a focus on efficiency and results,” the French president’s office stated.
“The two presidents… pledged to work to strengthen trade and investment while respecting the interests of both countries,” it added.
During the conversation, the French president urged his counterpart to show “mercy and humanity” towards jailed French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal. The author was sentenced last Thursday to five years in prison after being held since late last year for “attacking territorial integrity.” Macron previously said Algiers was “dishonoring itself” by detaining Sansal, who President Tebboune referred to as a French “imposter.”
“Algeria has a consistent foreign policy, and political rapprochement with France is hardly seen as a realistic scenario. There is a broad consensus in Algeria among decision-makers and the population on a lack of confidence towards France,” Andrey Maslov, the head of the Center for African Studies at Moscow’s Higher School of Economics, told RT, commenting on the call.
“The other thing is that economic cooperation inevitably remains in a number of directions, and therefore there are reasons for first-person conversations,” he added.
Maslov stressed that, “in the absence of success on other fronts, the Elysée Palace is certainly interested in presenting a working conversation as a political breakthrough, but Algeria itself is not inclined to negotiate and trade its political position.”
The already strained relations between France and the North African country began deteriorating last July, when Macron endorsed a controversial Moroccan autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Algiers, which supports the sparsely populated region’s independence, recalled its ambassador from Paris in protest of the move. Tebboune also canceled a long-delayed official visit to France due to the feud, while accusing Paris of colonial-era genocide.
In late February, the African state’s Foreign Ministry reported that the French authorities had imposed restrictions on entry into France for Algerians who hold “special travel documents” that ordinarily exempt them from visa formalities.
The report came after French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou warned that Paris would reconsider a decades-old migration agreement with Algeria, accusing the former colony of refusing to take back deportees. Last month, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed that the Macron administration has enforced measures at the borders, resulting in some Algerian nationals being returned to their country as part of a “graduated response.”
During Monday’s call, Macron and his Algerian counterpart agreed to immediately reestablish migration cooperation which focuses on addressing concerns of both countries.
A joint panel of historians probing the past between France and Algeria, which gained independence in 1962 after a bloody eight-year war, will also resume work, according to the statement published by the French presidency.