Spain Is Courting Algeria Again And Crying Out To The Europeans

Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares announced Madrid’s continued orientation towards vigorous European efforts to resolve the political and diplomatic crisis with Algeria, which erupted against the backdrop of Madrid’s declaration of support for Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara, in a position that blatantly contradicts UN regulations.

Albares said, in an interview with the Spanish news agency, on Monday evening, that “some commercial relations between the two countries are still suspended, and Spain has not done anything to justify disrupting these commercial operations,” noting that Madrid has requested European assistance to solve the crisis with Algeria, adding that previously contacts took place between the European authorities (the European Union) and Algeria, in order to reach a settlement of the ongoing diplomatic crisis.

Albares reaffirmed that his country’s government “adheres to the policy of an outstretched hand with Algeria, which can redirect relations in light of the friendship between the two peoples,” and said that “Spain wants a relationship like the one it has with its other neighbors.”

Relations between Algeria and Spain have been frozen since the end of last March, since Madrid announced a change in its position on Western Sahara, and support for the so-called “autonomy proposal” put forward by Morocco, a position Algeria considered “immoral, and Madrid’s renunciation of its historical responsibilities in the conflict”.

As a result, Algeria summoned its ambassador from Madrid since that time and he has not returned to his post until now (he was later appointed ambassador to Paris), and political visits between the two countries were also interrupted, and contacts remained at a minimum.

The political crisis between Algeria and Spain has cast a shadow over bilateral trade relations significantly, and this was evident through the significant  slump in Algerian gas exports to the European Union member state (Spain) by the end of 2022, and Algeria is employing the “energy card” strongly, to put pressure on its economic Mediterranean partner, to get it to review his unacceptable support for Morocco in the Western Sahara conflict.

The Spanish newspaper “El Mundo” said that liquefied gas exports from Algeria to Spain witnessed a significant decline at the end of 2022, estimated at 74%, compared to the same period in 2021. The newspaper attributed this sharp decline in energy pumping from Algeria to Spain, to “tension between the two countries”, following the position announced by the head of the socialist government, Pedro Sanchez, regarding the Western Sahara,” referring to a letter sent by Sanchez to King Mohammed VI of Morocco in March 2022, confirming his support for the Moroccan “autonomy plan” in the Western Sahara.

Among other trade restrictions, Algeria stopped importing several products from Spain, the most important of which are iron and steel, machinery, paper products, fuel and plastic. This was done in the context of the suspension of the “Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation” between Algeria and Spain, which was concluded in 2002, and it also withdrew its ambassador 8 months ago, and did not return him to his post until now.

And last month, Marta Paracina, the head of the Spanish “Popular Party”, which is widespread in the Valencia region in the east of the country, criticized her country’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, asking him to “resolve the dispute with Algeria.”

The leader of the opposition party estimated that the suspension of commercial exchanges between the province of Valencia and Algeria damaged an annual turnover of 230 million euros, noting that the decision to suspend trade by Algeria “had a weight on the economy of an entire region.”

Algeria “changed the compass of its strategic relations in the field of energy towards Italy, after Madrid had spent millions of euros in order to establish infrastructure for storing and converting gas, making it the European pole in the field of gas, a concession that was transferred to Italy “.