France’s Macron woos Algeria with new pact

The leaders of France and Algeria took an important step on Saturday towards mending relations scarred by disputes over migration and the legacy of colonial crimes, agreeing to cooperate on energy, security and reassessing their joint history. The three-day visit, came less than two months after Algeria marked six decades of independence following 132 years of French rule and a devastating eight-year war.

The visit also came as European nations scrambled to replace Russian energy imports – including with supplies from Algeria, Africa’s top gas exporter, which in turn is seeking to expand its clout in North Africa and the Sahel.

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune hailed “an excellent and very successful” visit and credited Macron’s personal efforts toward rapprochement. The two were chummy at their final meeting Saturday, smiling, embracing and holding hands. Tebboune specifically praised an unprecedented joint security meeting, without elaborating.

The accords released by Macron’s office however, were thin on specifics, and stop far short of an official apology for France’s colonial-era wrongdoing, which Algerians have long clamored for.
The countries agreed to cooperate on gas and hydrogen development and medical research, and create a joint commission to examine archives from the 130 years when Algeria was the crown jewel in France’s empire.

Ties between Paris and Algiers have seen repeated crises over the years, Particularly since last year when Macron questioned Algeria’s existence as a nation before the French occupation and accused the government of fomenting “hatred towards France”.

Tebboune then withdrew his country’s ambassador in response and banned French military aircraft from its airspace.
Normal diplomatic relations have since resumed, along with overflights to French army bases in sub-Saharan Africa.

As France’s first leader born after the colonial era, Macron has sought to confront his country’s past wrongdoing while pivoting to a new era of relations with once-colonized lands.

Macron announced that an additional 8,000 Algerian students would be admitted to study in France this year, joining 30,000 already in the country.
He also announced the creation of a joint commission of historians to examine the colonial period and the ruinous eight-year war that ended it.