Abdelmadjid Tebboune spent three days in Moscow at the end of last week. Despite the war in Ukraine, the Algerian head of state wants to get closer to Russia, his traditional ally.
This three-day state visit took place at the invitation of Vladimir Putin. Its aim was to strengthen thestrategic partnership“between Moscow and Algiers. A visit that the Kremlin qualifies”of history“. It was the first since that of Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in 2008.
President Tebboune was also welcomed with great pomp under the golds of the Saint-Georges room of the Grand Palace in the Kremlin, before being greeted by a standing ovation at the Economic Forum of Saint Petersburg, of which he was the guest. of honor. Media-wise, it was perfectly successful.
>> Algerian national anthem: a controversial and anti-France verse restored by a decree of the Algerian president
Vladimir Putin drinks whey
Through this kind of staging, Vladimir Putin first wants to show the world that he is not an isolated leader. Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Moscow has taken care of its relations in Asia, Latin America and Africa. Abdelmadjid Tebboune jubilantly dons the costume and manners of the courtier, to the point of pronouncing, on the stage of the Economic Forum, this sentence which earned him ridicule on social networks: “His Excellency President Putin is the friend of the whole world“. The interested party grimaces, as if to say “Yes… Well… Well, not everyone anyway“. He himself looked a little embarrassed by so much servility.
“Algerians were born free and will remain so in their decisions and their behavior“, also replied the Algerian president to a question on possible Western pressure. The day before, he had been even more precise: “Today, there is a situation and perhaps international pressures, but that does not impact our friendship”.
The Russian president also needs Algeria and its money: the country is its third largest arms customer after China and India. As Algiers dramatically steps up its military modernization — its 2023 budget is up 120% from last year — Russia, battered by international sanctions and underperforming on defense, doesn’t want to see that money slip away. .
Algeria wants to become an influential regional player
For its part, Algeria is seeking to get closer to Moscow to rebalance its relations with a historic ally, while their partnership had not made much progress in recent years. The regional situation is a little tense (crisis with Morocco, war in Mali and Libya), and Algiers, which has always advocated multilateral diplomacy, is seeking to diversify its partners and position itself as an influential regional player, among other things to counterbalance the role of Saudi Arabia and its crown prince Mohammad bin Salman.
Abdelmadjid Tebboune believes that only his Russian ally will be able to help him keep his independence and his freedom, by supplying him with arms and establishing a new defense agreement. On this last point, even if the two countries regularly practice joint military exercises, Russia shows no eagerness to follow up on the incessant reminders from Algiers.
There is also the question of gas: with the war in Ukraine, Algeria has increased its deliveries to European countries, but above all does not want this to harm its relations with the Kremlin.
Paris-Algiers relations not looking good
This rapprochement with Moscow can also harm relations between Paris and Algiers, while Franco-Algerian relations are again quite fresh. On May 21, a decree from the Algerian president reinstated an anti-France couplet in his national anthem (which has five). “The context of the time explains it. Today, I concede that it may appear out of time”, reacted Catherine Colonna, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, on LCI. President Tebboune was also due to make a state visit to France in May, but it has been postponed and rumors of cancellation or postponement are more numerous every day.