Algerian president to pay state visit to France in June

Abdelmadjid Tebboune will make a state visit to France in June, the Algerian presidency announced on Sunday (April 23rd), after a telephone conversation between the Algerian head of state and Emmanuel Macron. During this call, the two presidents “discussed bilateral relations and the means of strengthening them, including the state visit of the President of the Republic, to France, which they agreed to organize in the second half of June”.

Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s trip was initially expected in May. The announcement of this new date comes a month after Paris and Algiers officially turned the page on the latest diplomatic crisis between the two countries. During an interview at the end of March, the two heads of state had raised “misunderstandings” around the exfiltration to France of a Franco-Algerian activist.

Efforts to rebuild a more peaceful relationship

Despite a ban on leaving the territory in Algeria, this activist, Amira Bouraoui, entered Tunisia on February 3, before being arrested when she was trying to board in the direction of Paris. She was finally able to fly to France three days later. Algiers had judged that his departure for France constituted a “illegal exfiltration” and had recalled its ambassador to Paris for consultation.

Before this episode, France and Algeria had sealed a warming of their relationship on the occasion of Emmanuel Macron’s trip to Algiers last August. The question of the memory of the colonization of Algeria by France in the 19th century and of the Algerian war (1954-1962) constitutes one of the great sensitive points of the relationship between Paris and Algiers. The two countries are now stepping up their efforts to rebuild a more peaceful relationship.