Relations between France and Algeria are
"in an upward phase"
, said Friday the head of Algerian diplomacy Ramtane Lamamra on the sidelines of the African Union summit, where Algiers offered mediation in the political crisis in mali.
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“We are in an upward phase and we hope that it will get better and better,”
replied the minister to RFI and France24 in Addis Ababa, where the AU summit is organized.
Ramtane Lamamra assured that Algerian Presidents Abdelmajid Tebboune and French President Emmanuel Macron had
"an excellent personal relationship"
,
"cordial and trusting"
.
But
"that is not enough to hide certain problems"
, said the Algerian minister, recalling that the estrangement of last October was born of what Algiers perceived as
"attacks on memory, history and the dignity of our compatriots".
Regarding memorial issues, the Minister judged that
“History must be left to historians and the appropriation by each of the peoples of its history must be done without acrimony and without accusations that are not necessarily proven”
.
Concerning the 60th anniversary in March of the Evian agreements (ceasefire at the end of the Algerian war), and a possible gesture from Paris, the head of diplomacy hoped that Algeria could
recover archives”
,
“and even some skulls of heroes of the Algerian resistance against the French invasion”
, of which
“one wonders if it is really humane to keep them in museums”
.
In addition, Ramtane Lamamra
"does not exclude anything"
as to the possible participation of Abdelmajid Tebboune in a summit in mid-February in Brussels between the European Union and the African Union, at the invitation of France, which assures the rotating presidency of the EU.
On the ban on overflights of Algeria by French planes, Ramtane Lamamra mentioned a
"technical measure which is not intended to last forever"
, at a time when
"bridges of Algerian-French cooperation are in the process of to get back in place”
.
Mediation
Ramtane Lamamra also mentioned a proposal for mediation by Algeria between Mali and ECOWAS, stressing that
“as long as the Algerian efforts are underway, this will have a suspensive effect on the application of the sanctions”
of ECOWAS.
“We are waiting for the Malian government and the ECOWAS authorities to tell us if they are ready to negotiate
,” he said.
On the subject of the AU summit, he recalled Algeria's opposition to the observer status granted in July by this body to Israel, considering that this decision
"taken without prior consultations jeopardizes the solidarity which must exist between African nations
.