Because Italy’s activism in Africa enrages France
Italy has signed an anti-Russian agreement with Algeria, but Algeria has strengthened the strategic agreement that binds it to Russia. Alberto Negri's article for the manifesto
With the visit of the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to Rome, the strategic partnership between Italy and Algeria was reconfirmed: the Maghrebi country supplies 40% of our gas and in practice took the place of Russia in one year. In turn, Algerian President Tebboune, while the Ukrainian war rages on, met Putin in recent days, renewing the strategic pact between the two countries that has linked them for decades: energy and above all military cooperation in the foreground. In a nutshell, the Algerian regime buys arms from Moscow at full speed, even with our money: 50% of the Algerian arsenal is Russian.
THE ITALY-ALGERIA-RUSSIA TRIANGLE
An unwanted but obvious "triangulation". And also a bit paradoxical, given that there is a strategic consultation mechanism between Algiers and Rome (as it is defined) and Algerian President Tebboune will come to Italy in November to make it permanent.
The summary is this: Italy has signed an anti-Russian agreement with Algeria while Algeria has strengthened the strategic agreement that binds it to Russia. Other than Piano Mattei , the founder of Eni who, like the USSR, was a sponsor of the bloody struggle for Algerian independence from France (one million dead) between 1954 and 1962. The rust between Italy and France has a lot to do with the Algeria and it is no coincidence that in 2011 it was the French who began the air raids against Gaddafi, then Italy's major partner in North Africa and the Mediterranean.
FRANCE DOESN'T LIKE ITALIAN MOVEMENTS IN NORTH AFRICA
As the French political scientist Marc Lazar points out in reference to the Italian premier's mission to Paris: «Macron and Meloni are forced to get along in order to have a common position in the EU on the front of the softening of the stability pact, even if Macron sees how the smoke and mirrors the possibility that Meloni can form a conservative party in Italy capable of influencing the new European course ». That between Italy and France, says Lazar, is frequently a "peace of the moment".
In reality, France is always a little annoyed by the Italian presence on the southern shore, particularly in Algeria where Italian entrepreneurs but also our services were very active during the period of the dramatic struggle in the 1990s between the regime of the generals and Islamic extremism (200,000 dead). Perhaps it is no coincidence that while the Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf was starting his European tour from Italy (excluding the stop in France) the French Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna, defined the Algerian national anthem as "out of time", provoking the wrath of the Algiers authorities. Attaf said he was "astounded" by Colonna's words, adding that "for certain French parties or politicians one gets the impression that Algeria has become an easy subject to use for political purposes".
But above all France is irritated by the umbilical cord between Rome and Algiers which also passes through Tunisia, another burning case of Mediterranean failure where Meloni got her hands on recently bringing Ursula von der Leyen and the Dutchman Rutte to Tunis. In Algeria – while waiting for the Libyan Greenstream gas pipeline to return to full capacity – from an energy point of view we are now tied hand and foot: the flows arriving from the Transmed gas pipeline, which connects Algeria to Italy, passing through Tunisia and arriving in Mazara del Vallo, they increased by 113%, for a total of about 25 billion cubic meters of gas.
The Algerian Minister of Commerce, Taieb Zitouni, has just announced in a press conference that trade between the two countries has exceeded 20 billion dollars (obviously mostly Italian gas imports), explaining that Algeria is now the Italy's main trading partner in North Africa and the Arab world.
THE OTHER PARADOXES OF NORTH AFRICA-MIDDLE EAST
But this Italy-Algeria-Russia "triangle" is certainly not the only paradox in the region. There is Erdogan's Turkey, a NATO member, which has no intention of loosening its ties with Moscow. And the Egypt of the coup leader general al Sisi – awarded the legion of honor by Macron – reaffirmed the equidistance in the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, also because it needs Russian and Ukrainian grain. It is a fact that one of the main American allies in North Africa (Egypt receives 1.5 billion dollars a year in war supplies from the USA) does not intend to give up the strong economic, military and geopolitical collaboration with Putin. The view of the world from the southern shore is decidedly different from ours.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/italia-algeria-russia/ on Sat, 01 Jul 2023 05:30:30 +0000.