Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune and his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron spoke on the phone on Saturday and expressed their desire to “deepen” relations between the two countries, the Algerian presidency announced.
During this meeting, the two presidents “discussed bilateral relations and affirmed their determination to work for their deepening (…) particularly after the re-election of President Macron for a new mandate”, indicated the presidency in a press release published on Twitter.
The two heads of state also discussed “several issues, at the head of which that of the Sahel and the situation in Libya, in addition to regional and international issues of common interest”.
New momentum after a diplomatic crisis
At the end of April, President Tebboune congratulated Emmanuel Macron on his “brilliant” re-election and invited him to go to Algeria to strengthen bilateral relations after a crisis of rare gravity. France and Algeria have been trying for several months to give new impetus to their relationship after a serious diplomatic crisis.
Algiers had indeed recalled its ambassador to Paris in October in reaction to remarks by President Macron affirming that Algeria, after its independence in 1962 which put an end to 132 years of French colonization, had been built on “a memorial rent maintained by “the politico-military system”. The ambassador returned to France on January 6.
The head of French diplomacy Jean-Yves Le Drian underlined during a whirlwind visit to Algiers in mid-April the “indispensable” nature of cooperation between France and Algeria for the stability of the region.