Hommam Al Nassim 
The relationship between France and the Maghreb has been a particular geopolitical landscape for North Africa, where French ambitions with both Algeria and Morocco pose a challenge to create a diplomatic balance.
Between regional conflicts and ongoing political tensions between Morocco and Algeria on the one hand, and France, which has a number of crises with the two countries, and at a time when the visit of Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to Paris between the end of September and the beginning of October was announced after several postponements, French President Emmanuel Macron renews French efforts to maintain a wide African gateway after severe setbacks in the French presence in a number of North African countries.
France’s diplomatic space
The announcement of President Tebboune’s visit to France in the fall confirms a clear message from Macron: the essence is that strengthening relations with Rabat never means moving away from Algeria and creating a partnership between the two North African countries without favoring one over the other. Foreign Minister Stéphane Sigourné was initially appointed to chart a new context in French-Moroccan relations, after years of diplomatic friction and contradictions in the arrangement of relations with the Maghreb in general, the rule laid by Sigourné is to deal with complex and sometimes controversial relations with both Algeria and Morocco.
Despite the French efforts, its diplomatic space in North Africa is still under threat, and its success in creating a balance in its relations with this tense region remains in doubt, as the past years have drawn complex options for Paris, in light of the tension that affected the European continent as a result of the Ukrainian war, and it seems that simultaneous dealing with Algeria and Morocco is no longer a diplomatic option, but rather a necessity for France, as the complexities of the Middle East and the challenges in the African Sahel region impose a balanced and practical approach, and the need to link the challenges. Mutual between France, Algeria, and Morocco.
Internal French pressures
Macron’s path towards balanced diplomacy in the Maghreb was influenced by internal French issues, as politicians and parliamentarians as well as former President Nicolas Sarkozy called for revitalizing relations with Rabat, at a time when Morocco emerged as a more reliable partner for France compared to the volatile alliances with Algeria, which has tensions with France’s partners, especially the United States and Israel, which drew the focus on Morocco’s strategic importance in French foreign policy.
President Macron confronts his critics by putting France’s differences with Rabat at the forefront, charting a different course that places the Western Sahara issue as a point of contention between Algeria and Morocco in the depth of its role between the two countries, as it appears as a third party with its own contradictions with the two countries.
French diplomacy seeks to involve both Algeria and Morocco in a three-dimensional equation isolated from other crises, especially the Palestinian issue, as for Macron, there is a strategic need to maintain balanced relations with both countries despite internal objections and French losses to its African positions.
Balance of relations with Algeria
Tebboune’s visit to France illustrates a clear picture of French attempts to create a diplomatic balance with North Africa, as the visit was scheduled to take place in early May 2023, and was postponed several times for various reasons, including the May demonstrations against the reform of the pension system in France, and differences between the two countries on issues such as mobility and economic cooperation, in addition to the liquidation of the historical legacy such as French nuclear tests in the Algerian desert, and the last postponement came at a sensitive time before the presidential elections in Algeria, This adds further complexity to the diplomatic context.
France tried to penetrate all the complexities of its relations with Algeria, and President Macron visited Algeria in the summer of 2022, which came to turn the page on tensions that culminated in the summoning of the Algerian ambassador in October 2021 after Macron’s statements about the Algerian “political-military” system, and the Algerian president stressed at the time the importance of the visit in launching a new dynamic of progress in addressing major files.
For Macron, the visit was surrounded by a tangled economic background, as France has since 2022 become Algeria’s second trade partner and is the first investor outside the hydrocarbon sector in Algeria, and France was able to maintain its position as the second largest supplier to Algeria with a market share of 10.6%, ahead of countries such as Italy and Germany, while French foreign direct investments in Algeria amounted to 93 million euros in 2020.
Tebboune’s upcoming visit is seen as an opportunity to put the differences between the two countries within a new circle, and try to overcome them, as the Elysee points to the need to strengthen cooperation in all fields, and there seems to be a desire on both sides to restore a positive dynamic that allows overcoming previous difficulties and achieving progress on outstanding issues.
In a panoramic scene, France wants to bring together all the contradictions by simultaneously improving its relations with Algeria and Morocco, an approach that appears within a dangerous international context, where President Macron believes that the revitalization of relations with Rabat necessarily requires the development of the relationship with Algeria, as the interdependence of French relations with both countries can be made within two separate tracks, and this creates a margin that can be used to reduce regional tension.
Written by Nidal Al-Khedary
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