France, Algeria resume dialogue, but rocky path ahead
Ties between Paris and Algiers have been complicated for decades, but took a turn for the worse last July when Macron angered Algeria by recognising a plan for autonomy for the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty
Highlights:
- French foreign minister in Algiers after presidents talk
- Ties soured after Paris changed stance on Western Sahara
- French firms being cut out, wheat imports collapse
- Immigration issue galvanising French politics
France and Algeria resume diplomatic dialogue on Sunday after months of bickering that have hurt Paris' economic interests in its former colony, seen mutual accusations of humiliation and stalled vital security cooperation.
Ties between Paris and Algiers have been complicated for decades, but took a turn for the worse last July when Macron angered Algeria by recognising a plan for autonomy for the Western Sahara region under Moroccan sovereignty.
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French officials say Algiers is adopting a policy that aims to wipe France's economic presence from the country, with trade falling by as much as 30% since the summer.
A poor relationship has major security, economic and social repercussions: trade is extensive and some 10% of France's 68 million population has links to Algeria, according to French officials.
"It is in the interest of France and the French people to be able to get results in terms of migration, judicial, security and economic cooperation," Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told lawmakers on April 1.
Barrot arrives in Algiers on Sunday for a day of talks. That comes after a call between President Emmanuel Macron and his Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune on March 31, during which the two agreed to a broad roadmap to calm tensions.
French officials say Algiers has put obstacles to administrative authorisations and new financing for French firms operating in the country. Nowhere has it been felt more than in wheat imports.
Traders say the diplomatic rift led Algerian grains agency OAIC to tacitly exclude French wheat and firms in its import tenders since October. OAIC has said it treats all suppliers fairly, applying technical requirements.
France has only shipped one wheat vessel to Algeria in the 2024/25 season, a single cargo of 30,000 tons wheat in July. That compares with several million tons annually in recent years.
"People are talking about it but they're waiting to see what impact this has on the ground," a French grain trader said of Barrot's trip.
"We could definitely do with another buyer for our wheat."
AUTHOR ARRESTED
Beyond business, the relationship has also soured to the point where security cooperation, including over Islamist militancy, stopped. The detention by Algiers in November of 80-year-old Franco-Algerian author Boualem Sansal also worsened the relationship.
He has since been sentenced to five years in prison. Paris hopes he will be given a presidential pardon, diplomats say.
With Macron's government under pressure to toughen immigration policies, the spat has fed into domestic politics in both countries.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has called for a 1968 pact between the two countries that makes it easier for Algerians to settle in France to be reviewed, after Algiers refused to take back some of its citizens who were ordered to leave France under the "OQTF" (obligation to leave French territory) deportation regime.
The relationship between the two countries is scarred by the trauma of the 1954-1962 war in which the North African country, which had a large settler population and was treated as an integral part of France under colonial rule, won independence.
About 400,000 Algerian civilians and fighters were killed, as well as about 35,000 French and as many as 30,000 Muslim "harkis" who fought in the French army against Algerian insurgents.
Macron has over the years pushed for more transparency regarding France's past with Algeria while also saying that Algeria's "politico-military system" had rewritten the history of its colonisation by France based on "a hatred of France".
"President Macron recognised the Moroccan character of Western Sahara, a move Algeria views as a betrayal. With no sign Macron will ever reverse this decision, the Algerians will not be making it easy for French firms to do new business in their country," said Jalel Harchaoui, associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute.
