The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has postponed his trip to Algeria scheduled for this Monday “for reasons of the Algerian agenda.”
This was reported in a message by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to journalists who were planning to travel with the minister.
The trip, at the invitation of the Algerian Foreign Minister, Ahmed Attaf, had the objective of resuming political and diplomatic relations between Spain and Algeria after almost two years of crisis.
Diplomatic sources have assured that it is a mere postponement and that “there is a will” to resume it as soon as possible.
The breakdown of relations between Spain and Algeria occurred in March 2022, as soon as the decision of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, to support Morocco’s autonomist theses on Western Sahara was announced.
The change in Spanish position provoked the indignation of Algeria, which withdrew its ambassador in Spain and broke the Good Neighbor Agreement between both countries, cutting off all political relations and commercial exchanges, except for the sale of natural gas.
Algeria’s position began to vary in mid-November when, just days before Sánchez’s inauguration, it appointed a new ambassador to Spain.
Since then, air links between both countries have been recovered and the resumption of trade in certain sectors such as poultry and meat has been authorized.