“Algiers and Paris are turning the page”, headline The Evening of Algeria, illustrating his assertion with a photo of Emmanuel Macron and Abdelmadjid Tebboune, arms and gazes intertwined in a cordial embrace.
The two presidents exchanged many pleasantries and expressed the desire for a common future. This visit “put a lot of things in their place and allowed a rapprochement that would not have been possible if it weren’t for Macron’s very personality”, explained President Tebboune while President Macron called for building “the foundations of what is to come”.
“Algiers and Paris seem to have definitively turned the page on the crisis that has shaken their relations in recent months”, with notably “a permanent dialogue on all issues” based on “new principles”.
The Algiers Declaration, cornerstone of a new partnership
And to concretize this cordial understanding, after three days of visit of the French president, an “Algiers declaration for a renewed partnership” between the two countries was signed, preceded by five bilateral cooperation agreements in the fields of health, higher education and scientific research and sport.
Ce “dialogue permanent” should, according to Emmanuel Macron, cover all subjects, “including the subjects which have sometimes prevented us from moving forward and which keep coming back: history and memory”.
To move forward on this thorny issue, a commission of historians should be quickly set up – in the next fortnight, according to Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who also specified that this commission will carry out its work “away from politics” and could submit its report within a year.
Africa, a major challenge
The new dialogue will take the form of a meeting of the Prime Ministers and members of the two governments in the coming weeks in Algiers, as well as numerous bilateral visits within the framework of the new agenda of relations between the two countries, indicates The Evening of Algeria.
At the heart of this visit, Africa, a continent on which France faces competition from other international players. “We can do a lot together in the African market”, indicated Emmanuel Macron while his Algerian counterpart specified that “France, as the first European power, member of the UN Security Council, and Algeria, one of the first African powers”, could “acting together in many areas […] in the interest of Africa which we always defend”.
But it is above all security cooperation that was a novelty during this trip. A meeting of security officials from both countries took place on August 26 in Algiers. “A first since the country’s independence”, note The Evening of Algeria.