Italian President Sergio Mattarella on November 6 visited Algeria, where he was received by Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in Algiers. During the two-day visit, the two countries signed three agreements on education, justice and heritage preservation.
Mattarella’s visit has special significance for several reasons. Most importantly, it is the first such visit by an Italian president in 18 years. It is also the fifth visit by a foreign leader to the North African country since Tabounne assumed office in December 2019. Since then, Tabounne received the leaders of Tunisia, Turkey, Qatar and Niger. Additionally, Matarella’s visit came amid several remarkable changes in Algeria’s foreign policy on European states.
Important Implications
The Italian leader’s visit to Algeria is part of efforts by the two countries to bolster their bilateral political, economic and security relations. The following political and economic implications of the visit stand out:
1- Strengthening political relations:
The Italian President's visit to Algeria shows the two countries’ interest in consolidating their diplomatic and political ties, in implementation of a memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries during the Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio visit to Algeria in December last year. Then, the two sides agreed on promoting their bilateral relations to a partnership especially in political and economic areas, among others.
2- Strengthening political relations:
Algeria’s political leadership is pursuing a new foreign policy based on reviving diplomatic relations to bolster its regional role in crisis in the Maghreb region (the Libyan crisis), the Middle East (the Palestinian issue), as well as Africa (it offered to mediate in the dispute over the Ethiopia’s Renaissance Dam). It is also looking for international influence. Within this context, Algeria’s diplomacy keeps its focus on furthering relations with international partners, and the European Union, Russia and China in particular. As part of this effort, Algeria seeks to strengthen political relations with Italy, viewed as a politically and economically influential country in the European Union. It also seeks to forge a strategic alliance with Rome amid ongoing diplomatic tensions with France. Paris asked Algiers to respect France’s sovereignty following a meeting between Algerian Ambassador Mohammed Antar Dawood in Paris with the Algerian community. In the meeting, Dawood urged Algerians to play an active role in France’s political life. The position was taken in reaction to inappropriate comments made by French President Emmanuel Macron, who questioned whether there had been an Algerian nation before French colonial rule. The comments prompted Algeria to escalate against France, with President Tabboune saying that relations with France will not be restored because of Macron’s comments, a row on visas issued by France as well as France’s support to Morocco in the dispute on Western Sahara. This prompted Algeria to strengthen relations with Italy as an alternative, following its strained relations with France. Through this move, Algeria shows that it can forge alliances and partnerships with countries that respect Algeria's sovereignty and treat it as a peer state.
3- Offsetting France’s role:
The Convergence between Italy and Algeria came amid high tensions in the Algerian-French diplomatic relations which Italy viewed as a favorable opportunity to push this meeting with Algeria and expand its political influence in the Maghreb and North Africa. Italy’s goal is to forge unique political and economic relations with Algeria, and serve its own interests in the region, especially as France influence has been diminishing over the past period in the Maghreb, the Sahel and Western Sahara to the benefit of new partners including Italy.
4- Advanced economic relations:
The current political convergence between Italy and Algeria would contribute towards maximizing economic benefits for both countries where the volume of trade between them reach $6 billion in 2020. Additionally, closer relations will enable Italy, which is the top destination of Algerian natural gas exports at 15 billion cubic meters a year, to receive enough energy supplies to meet demand. Eni’s share alone stands at 12 billion cubic meters, after its contract was extended for 10 years, while Enel and Edison, both on an 8-year contract, get 3 billion and 1 billion cubic meters respectively.
Furthermore, it is in Italy’s interest to consolidate agreements already signed with Algeria on gas supplies, especially after Algeria announced that the supply of its gas via Morocco to Spain in the GME pipeline is set to end this month. Within this context, Algeria wants to benefit from Italy’s economic experience, especially regarding small and medium-sized companies so as to promote its economic development.
5- Shaping mutual considerations:
Both Algeria and Italy rely on their common views and positions on regional issues to bolster their political relations:
a) The Libyan Crisis:
Algeria and Italy share a common view for solving the Libyan crisis through a political settlement, as outlined by the roadmap charted by the United Nations. They also reiterate the importance of withdrawing foreign fighters and mercenaries from Libya and reject foreign interference in the Libyan crisis.
Algeria and Italy build on their position on this crisis to promote their political understandings. Furthermore, this will help Italy expand its influence in Libya and counter Turkey’s expanding role in the Eastern Mediterranean, which impacted Italy’s economic interests in this region.
b) Illegal immigration:
The issue of illegal immigration from Maghreb and North African countries to European Union member states represents an issue that raises special security concerns. Recently, the flow of Algerian illegal immigrants to Italy increased. They travel to the European country to become residents or cross to other European Union member countries.
But Algeria itself has become a transit point for the so-called “death boats’” carrying Africans to Europe, which prompted Italy to promote coordination with Algeria, especially on security matters, so as to prevent waves of illegal immigration from reaching its territory. For this purpose, a delegation from the Italian parliament’s committee on the Schengen Area and Europol visited Algeria in April to discuss ways of preventing Algerian immigrants from reaching Sardinia’s shores and sign an agreement on combating illegal immigration. Additionally, in October, Italy urged the European Union to activate legal immigration channels as one of the solutions proposed to address the issue.
In conclusion, the Italian President’s recent visit to Algeria highlighted several major matters. Most importantly is that Algeria is now counting on forging alliances with new partners other than France because of the tensions marring their political relations. On the other side, Italy is working to consolidate its influence in the Maghreb to preserve its interests in the region. Based on that, Algeria and Italy are likely to further strengthen their convergence in all areas, and economy in particular.
