Tunis will host today the first consultative meeting of the presidents of Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, to realize the wish expressed at the beginning of last March to put an end to the institutional “coma” of the Maghreb region due to freezing of the Arab Maghreb Union (UMA).
An inaugural meeting of these countries took place last month in Algiers on the sidelines of the 7th Summit of gas exporting countries to which Tunisia was invited. As agreed in Algiers, these three Maghreb countries will now consult each quarter to examine the harmonization of their positions about international issues and to outline the frameworks for partnership and cooperation between them.
The first round of consultation is therefore being held in Tunis, while the next meeting is planned in Libya unless the security conditions in Tripoli temporarily exclude such a rotation and limit it to Algiers and Tunis. The press release from the Tunisian presidency, announcing the meeting, was not precise on its agenda.
To expand on the issue, media, and political commentators returned to the remarks of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune during his recent meeting with the press, as well as various statements by Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Attaf.
President Tebboune insisted on the need for neighboring countries to accept the idea of filling the void created by the practical freezing of the Maghreb Union (UMA). The Algerian president stressed that “North Africa is the only region in Africa and perhaps even in the world, which does not have a framework for discussions and does not have a common position vis-à-vis international issues.
Minister Attaf declared that “the UMA is in a ‘coma’ and that it ‘has no activity, nor even a secretary general’ with the prerogatives of a real secretary general.” The meeting in Tunis therefore follows in the footsteps of last month in Algiers, to launch this consultation process that has been frozen since 1994, the date of the last UMA summit.
It is useful to emphasize that, during his last meeting with the media, President Tebboune indicated that this bloc is not directed against any other state and the door is open to countries in the region. “The door remains open to our Western neighbors,” he said, drawing attention to the fact that “these neighbors have made other choices without consulting us,” citing Morocco’s desire to join the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
It is therefore an attitude of protecting the interests of the countries of the region, by harmonizing their positions within a world where alliances dominate. Furthermore, to strengthen its request to join ECOWAS, Morocco was behind the “Atlantic initiative for the Sahel” aimed at facilitating access for Sahel countries to the Atlantic Ocean, launched in December 2023 in Marrakech by the king of Morocco. This means that Morocco has already sought its interests elsewhere than in the AMU.
It is therefore logical that other countries try to preserve their own interests while leaving the doors open to possible reconciliation. And Algerian-Tunisian relations have always been good. Algeria has not stopped supporting Tunisia during its economic and financial crisis, both on the security and financial levels.
On the other hand, the situation in Libya remains confused. Algeria and Tunisia are among the rare countries to support a Libyan-Libyan solution, without the direct intervention of foreign powers. The majority of other countries support one or other of the multiple belligerents in Libya and have particular interests there.
It is therefore very likely that the Libyan question will be one of the key subjects of this meeting in Tunis, especially after the resignation of the UN special envoy to Libya, Abdoulay Bathily. Algiers and Tunis should redouble their efforts to support the return to normal in Libya.
The Tunis summit will surely try to make progress on this, especially since the Libyan president, Mohamed Younès El Menfi, claims to be one of the personalities who can go to the East or the West, as he has shown with his presence in Derna, during the Eid prayer, on April 10.
