It is an open secret, Algeria has devoted for the current financial year 2023, an explosive budget of 23.02 billion dollars for the army, most of which will be used for the purchase of weapons. Once is not custom, it will not be Russia, its traditional ally and main gunsmith who supplies it with almost all of its weapons, which should benefit exclusively from this famous jackpot, more than double its budget in 2022. .
Indeed, many oglers of “shares” of this gigantic market, if one can so speak, stand ready to bite into it with full teeth, following the example of France, where we perceive obvious signs of worrying connections.
The corporals of Algiers are also targeting Italy with which they have concluded an unprecedented gas agreement or even Germany and would like to obtain in return for their purchases, support from international bodies to cover their (future) mistakes. Also, through a beam of questions and hypotheses, one can wonder what troubled game Algeria still indulges in, against the Kingdom, of course.
It is true that between States and contrary to the customs of diplomacy, there are hardly any bonds of friendship or fraternity. States most often have common interests which constitute the matrix of their bilateral relationship. And that is why France and Algeria respectively a former colonizing country and a former colonized country, despite the many issues that divide them, are currently demonstrating real politik, as never before, to defend their common interests that they whether geostrategic, energy or commercial…
Algiers in a spectacular reversal, not to say radical in its conception, political, ideological and in its international strategy of alliances, has distinguished itself from Moscow, with a complete transformation of the agendas, such as the recent visit of general in diapers Chengriha to Paris , suspended maneuvers with Russia for fear of appearing on the list of countries supporting the war in Ukraine. So many signs that are precursors and manifest of a headlong rush in Algiers and belligerent intentions towards Morocco which constitutes a serious danger for the stability of the Maghreb region.
The capo of Algiers who in reality holds the country with an iron fist the country as Algerian chief of staff, Chengriha, went to Paris earlier this week, where he held meetings at the highest level, including with French President Emmanuel Macron, to better bring Algeria closer to its former colonizer with a view to the purchase of offensive weapons by Algeria such as Rafale fighter planes, AMX armored vehicles, rockets “Crotale” and “Aster”, the SAMP-T anti-aircraft defense of Franco-Italian manufacture…
Formerly, heir to a revolutionary anti-colonial past, a tenacious anti-imperialism and a nationalism which sheltered the movements of “national liberation” and other movements as revolutionary as Marxist in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the algeria is now turning towards conjunctural capitalism, forgetting the time of a few arms deliveries, its anger against France which it has so denigrated and publicly considered its enemy.
This historic change has its roots in thea absolute dependence on the export of hydrocarbons as a source of Algeria’s financial assets as well as its market of wealth buyers at more than 80% in the countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), led by the United States, France, Italy, Germany and Japan. This is the whole paradox of Algeria, which since its independence in 1962, juggles dangerously with economic and financial ties with Europe and the United States, and its political and military relations with the former USSR, then Russia, and China.
MoroccoLatestNews Fr asked the specialist of the Maghreb in general and Algeria in particular, Mohamed Talib, member of the Royal Advisory Council for Saharan Affairs (CORCAS) to explain this dangerous rapprochement between France and Algeria.
This rapid and sudden rapprochement which also manifested itself this week, in addition to the reception of Said Chengriha by Emmanuel Macron, by the trip to Algiers of the general secretary of the Quai d’Orsay, Anne-Marie Descôtes, leading a delegation of twenty senior French officials.
And a meeting this time in Paris, between the Secretary General of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and his Algerian counterpart, Amar Belani, a man who managed to rise to positions of responsibility in Algeria only thanks to his acrimony and his virulent remarks towards Morocco.
France and Algeria are preparing the next official visit of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune scheduled in 3 months which will serve to make announcements and force a second presidential term for the Algerian Head of State (already illegitimate) in 2024 under the blessing of the France.
On the military level, the Algerian president, although he is named on paper the Supreme Head of the Armed Forces and Minister of National Defence, does not hold any military power. The proof is that it was Said Chengriha who went to negotiate the military contracts face to face with Emmanuel Macron.
” Lhe position of France is becoming clearer and clearer”, Mohamed Talib told MoroccoLatestNews. “It’s escalating despite the visit of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna and what French diplomacy may well mean”. And to continue, France’s estrangement from Morocco is increasingly felt and the rapprochement between France and Algeria is most evident.”.
Mohamed Talib will back this up by saying, “ France does not manage to realize that the Kingdom is in the process of positioning itself on the international chessboard in an independent manner. Moreover, on the African continent, the breakthrough of Morocco on the economic level, on the political level, could not be more obvious. Inevitably, this does not please France because it upsets its interests in Africa. Between France and Algeria, it’s a question of gas, no more and no less, even if it means sacrificing a historic ally, Morocco in this case..
On the other hand, Mohamed Talib will explain, ” the French Executive holds, with regard to the regional situation, with its share of the Algerian cake (sales of weapons) with regard to the bonanza consecrated and declared by Algiers. France wants to take advantage of Algeria’s increasingly cold relations with Russia, especially since many African countries are turning their backs on it, preferring to do their military shopping elsewhere than in France..
Algeria, adds our interlocutor, ” seems to have come to the conclusion that Russia is not a winning horse in the conflict in Ukraine. Also in view of this eventuality it stands out from Russia trying to get closer to NATO even if it means losing its sponsor who provides it militarily and on occasion taking advantage of the European gas market held by Moscow..
Russia, understanding Algeria’s game, would not be slow to react in 2023, even if Algiers continues to supply itself with weapons at home.
A highlight of Chengriha’s visit to Paris, passed over in silence but which represents so much symbolism for the two countries, ” it was France’s gift to Chengriha, who was very happy to receive it. He He was offered a military helmet symbol of French power, the very one that exterminated more than five million Algerian martyrs. an attention that proves the headlong posture of the Algerian generals towards the country they “hate” so much.