We have rarely seen Algeria get closer so quickly to another country, especially in European. A quick understanding has been born between Algiers and Rome lately. At stake, are agreements in the sectors of agriculture, energy, education, and infrastructure but also, according to Africa Intelligence, security.
It all started last October, when the Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramtane Lamamra, castigated French interference in Algerian affairs, and African affairs in general. He was then in Rome, where he attended the third Italy-Africa summit.
Four months later, the war between Ukraine and Russia began. If Algeria has started to negotiate new contracts for the supply of liquid natural gas (LNG) with European countries, the one concluded with Italy had already been signed in January.
Bilateral visits followed one another. On one side, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, on the other their foreign ministers — Lamamra and Luigi Di Maio, two Eurosceptics. The objective, therefore: is to intensify cooperation between the two countries.
But it is especially since the reconciliation between Spain and Morocco that Algiers has made public several details of its partnership with Italy. With Algeria and Morocco not currently at their best, and Italy watching the European Union (EU) with growing mistrust, what was an alliance of circumstance quickly mutates into a strategic friendship.
Tebboune is expected in Rome on May 26
For Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, this relationship is only the continuity of a historic partnership. “Algeria is Italy’s leading trading partner on the African continent and trade between our two countries is growing rapidly,” assured the Algerian head of state during a visit by Mario Draghi to Algiers in April.
A visit that Tebboune is preparing to pay to his counterpart on May 26. It will first be a question of rounding off the angles of the gas and energy agreement between the Italian ENI and the Algerian Sonatrach. An agreement will include, in addition to the increase in Algerian LNG exported, the sale of electricity via a new submarine cable. But also the transfer of technology in renewable energies, in this case, the exploitation of green hydrogen and the capture and storage of carbon.
Tebboune’s next visit to Rome will also, according to several sources, be an opportunity to announce a new security agreement. More specifically, Algeria covets the services of the Leonardo SpA group in terms of aerial surveillance of borders and oil infrastructures.
Not just a matter of gas
In a recent interview, Algerian Ambassador to Rome Abdelkrim Touahrieh revealed that Italian-Algerian cooperation will also include tourism and agriculture. But not only, because within the framework of the 4th Italy-Africa summit, which will be held in Algeria from July 17, Algerian and Italian industrialists will discuss public works, drug production, communication technologies…
If the Italian-Algerian alliance covers so many sectors, it is also a message sent to Morocco. That being said, it is not customary for Algiers to approach a Western country so quickly. Nonetheless, it looks like circumstances are aligned for a lasting friendship between the Boot and the Mecca of Revolutionaries.
To the benefit of Algeria, which is looking for a new European base, but also of Italy, which has long been hampered in its relations with Africa by French hegemony. No embarrassment for Italy which, since 2016, has been talking more and more about an “Italexit”, namely a future exit from the European Union.
