French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne will leave on Sunday for a two-day visit to Algiers, accompanied by 16 ministers, to give “new impetus” to the reconciliation initiated by the two presidents at the end of August.
This is the first foreign visit by a French prime minister, which she will begin with a visit to two memorials. After months of tension, French President Emmanuel Macron paid a visit to Algeria in late August, which improved relations between the two countries.
As for the details of the visit, AFP reported that Bourne will lay a wreath at the “Mausoleum of the Martyr” in the Algerian capital, a monument to the memory of the Algerians who fell against France during the War of Independence (1954-1962). and at the St. Eigen Cemetery (cemetery) of the European Union in Bologna, where several Algerians of French origin are buried, although no breakthrough is expected during this visit in terms of the memory of colonialism and the war in Algeria.
During the visit, the French Prime Minister will meet with Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboun, with whom Macron signed on August 27 the Algiers Declaration on the Renewal of Partnership, which includes 6 axes, knowing that no concrete steps have yet been taken in this regard. , as the two presidents announced the formation of a Joint Committee of Historians “for the joint consideration of this historical period” from the beginning of colonization (1830) to independence (1962), while this committee is still “in the process of formation”.
Born today, along with her Algerian counterpart Ayman Ben Abdelrahman, will chair the “fifth session of the high-level government committee”, meaning that the latest version of this meeting dates from 2017, when the committee will speak in its meeting in particular the file “economic cooperation”.
For his part, Hosni Obeidi, director of the Center for Research and Studies of the Arab and Mediterranean World in Geneva, explained that the committee meeting in itself and regardless of its results “is progress” in the field of political dialogue, as it was planned to visit Algeria with a ministerial delegation in April 2021, but it was postponed in the last minutes amid tensions between the two countries.
“AFP” indicated that the result of the meeting of the government committee should be the signing of “agreements” in the field of training and transformation in the field of energy, economic cooperation, youth, education and state sovereignty, as Paris is seeking, through this visit to give “new impetus” Franco-Algerian relations and turn them into real projects for the future.
In the midst of a major energy crisis in Europe, the French prime minister confirmed that the file was “not on the agenda” of the visit, with “negotiations ongoing” between Angie and the Algerian group Sonatrach, according to a source close to the file.
And Macron’s visit, accompanied by the head of the French energy company Enge Catherine McGregor, gave hope that Algerian gas could be pumped to France when Russian energy supplies to Europe are cut off.
Source: AFP