Rabat – Frederic Petit, a French MP of the Democratic Movement, has presented to France’s Foreign Affairs Committee a report detailing a new non-governmental diplomacy approach for France’s relations with Algeria.
The 70-page report, written after Petit consulted with numerous diplomats and members of civil society, highlights the deteriorating relations between Paris and Algiers and recommends avoiding dealing with the Algerian authorities and instead engaging in civil society diplomacy.
Relations between France and Algeria have been “abundant on a human level but dysfunctional on a political level,” Moroccan news outlet Le360 quoted the report as stressing.
France’s efforts over nearly two decades and three presidencies to strengthen relations with Algeria have repeatedly run into systemic blockages by the Algerian regime, the report argues.
French diplomats and institutions should therefore be looking to instead establish ties with Algerian civil society actors, the report suggests, adding that such an approach could lead to more consistent and satisfactory results, especially in terms of cultural and economic exchange.
Petit adds that the attempted revival of cooperation by current French president Emmanuel Macron will inevitably run into the same roadblocks as in the past and end in failure.
“Any strictly institutional approach seems to come up against irremediable obstacles by Algeria that are constantly being renewed and which originate in the very organization of the Algerian state,” Le360 quoted Petit’s report as saying.
France has had diplomatic tensions with a number of its former colonies over the past year, although the French leadership appears to have made some attempts to calm its troubled waters with Algeria.
In August 2022, Macron visited Algeria in an attempt to deepen relations and restore cooperation, but tensions seem to have returned since then.
France has also had tensions with Morocco in recent years, particularly over its decision to reduce the number of visas for Moroccans and its vague position on the Western Sahara dispute.
Source : Morocco World News
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