The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, with the President of Algeria, Abdelmayid Tebún, during his last visit to Algiers, in October 2021, in an image provided by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (Europa Press)
Trips like the one that the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, planned to make this Monday to Algeria are prepared in detail and weeks in advance.
The visit symbolized a new beginning once the diplomatic crisis caused by Spanish support for Moroccan positions in Western Sahara had been overcome.
The thaw after a period of tension that broke out 20 months ago.
But late on Sunday, less than 12 hours before the plane that would take the minister, his team and a group of journalists to Algiers took off, the trip was cut short.
The cause, according to the official Spanish explanation, was “reasons for the Algerian agenda.”
Specifically, as diplomatic sources explained, Albares had planned a meeting with President Abdelmajid Tebún, but this was suspended.
And with it, the trip, which has been postponed to a date not yet specified.
The Foreign Ministry assures that the trip will resume, although, in the meantime, some issues that are crucial for both countries remain pending.
Algeria, an ally of the Sahrawis and rival of Morocco, withdrew its ambassador in Madrid when the letter in which Pedro Sánchez sent to the King of Morocco, Mohamed VI, on March 14, 2022 was made public. In it he stated that Spain considered the Moroccan proposal for autonomy for the Sahara as “the most serious, credible and realistic basis.”
In an escalated response, Algiers froze commercial operations with Spain, reduced air connections and stopped accepting the return of its nationals who emigrate to Spain irregularly.
Six months earlier, in the midst of a diplomatic crisis with Morocco, the Algerian authorities had suspended one of the two gas pipelines that brought this fuel to the Peninsula - the one that crosses the neighboring country -, trusting the entire flow to Medgaz, which connects the Algerian coast with Almeria.
Although relations had already been strengthening in recent months, the visit represented, at least for Spanish businessmen, an important step to normalize commercial exchanges.
Exports to Algeria have suffered a setback since the beginning of the diplomatic crisis.
Between January and November 2023, they barely reached 278 million euros, compared to 2.9 billion in 2019, before the pandemic and the disagreement altered the records.
On the other hand, imports - based mainly on the sale of gas - almost reached 5.8 billion euros, compared to 3.8 billion euros in 2019, an increase that would be explained by the brutal increase in the price of this fuel as a result of the invasion. Russian from Ukraine.
Despite the postponement, Spanish businessmen, however, trust in a “progressive unlocking” before Ramadan, which will begin on March 10, regardless of the political scenario.
It will be for those products that Algeria needs most, as has already happened with exports of poultry products and red meat, which are in high demand during the breaking of the fast, at dusk, during the holy month of Muslims.
“Algeria is sending a message that things must be done little by little, that a new page will be opened, but that it will not be like before,” maintains Djamal Eddine Bouadallah, president of the Spanish-Algerian Circle of Commerce and Industry.
“Because the Algeria of 2019 is not the one of 2024. It is a country that wants to grow, develop its industry, and is going to use all its means to do so.
And this, it is clear, has an impact on their diplomatic relations,” he adds.
“In any case, I believe that Algiers wants to recover economic exchange, that this issue must be resolved, and then it will be seen at the political level.”
Another question will be whether Algeria returns to collaborate more intensely in other areas such as the fight against irregular immigration.
Unlike what has happened with Morocco when it has strained its relations with Spain, Algiers has not used immigration as a response.
In fact, the irregular arrival of Algerians to Spanish coasts has maintained a downward trend.
But there is an issue that is of utmost importance for the Ministry of the Interior, that Algeria once again accepts the return of its irregular emigrants.
Traditionally, the country has accepted the return of hundreds of Algerians who were transported each year on ferries leaving Alicante and Almería, operations that were canceled with the crisis and whose number in 2023 (less than twenty) was anecdotal.
Gas price review
For its part, gas exports have been playing an essential role in the bilateral relationship between Spain and Algeria for decades.
A bond that, far from diminishing, has gained special relevance in recent years, as a result of the energy crisis.
Almost 30% of the gas consumed in 2023 came from the North African country, the only producer from where fuel arrives by tube: the rest of the imports are by ship.
The Spanish energy company Naturgy (the former Gas Natural Fenosa) and the Algerian state gas company Sonatrach have had a purchase and sale agreement for two decades of the natural gas that travels through the Medgaz, which enters Spain through the Almeria coast and which, after the closure , by decision of Algiers, of the Maghreb-Europe, which connected both countries via Morocco, is the only asset between Africa and the Iberian Peninsula.
This contract guarantees supply until 2030, but price negotiations are carried out year by year, almost always in an expired year.
In October of last year, both companies reached an agreement for 2022, with a substantial – although not quantified – upward revision.
This year, the price negotiation – which runs parallel to the diplomatic relationship, although the connections between the two are more than evident – has not yet concluded.
All, despite the fact that the application period was for 2023, already concluded.
This delay has also been influenced by the change in the leadership of Sonatrach, with Rachid Hachichi landing at the beginning of October as CEO.
The president of Naturgy, Francisco Reynés, traveled to Algiers three weeks later to meet with both Hachichi and the Minister of Energy and Mines of the Maghreb country, Mohamed Arkab.
“There is a desire to bring positions closer together, and to find a quick solution and collaborate,” the sources consulted by EL PAÍS stressed at the time.
Almost four months later, however, the pricing agreement for last year and next is still up in the air.
The recent drop in the price of gas in international markets, however, invites us to think about a certain moderation after several upward revisions.
The economic relationship—and, very particularly, energy—between Algeria and Spain is one of mutual dependence.
The former has few alternatives to dispose of its gas outside of Italy and Spain, given the limited capacity of its liquefaction trains – the process to convert it from a gaseous state to a liquid state, to later transport it by ship.
The bulk of the exported gas comes out of both tubes.
Algeria, for its part, plays an essential role for Spain's energy security.
Despite having one of the largest regasification capacities in Europe, almost a quarter of gas imports continue to flow through Megaz.
With added value: the cost of gas that arrives by tube is, by definition - it does not require any processing, beyond its injection into the pipeline -, lower than that which travels by ship.
A competitive advantage that, even more so since the lock was slammed, no one wants to give up today.
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