Marina Pina

Updated Sunday, February 11, 2024-20:20

  • Viaje Albares will visit Algeria almost two years after the diplomatic crisis caused by the change of position on the Sahara

  • Brussels Albares now avoids clarifying whether it informed Algeria of the Government's change of position in the Sahara: "Communications between Spain and Morocco are bilateral"

Algeria

has postponed

the visit of the Spanish Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albares, just 12 hours after it began. A message sent by diplomatic sources confirmed at eight o'clock this Sunday night that Albares' visit to Algiers was suspended "

due to scheduling problems

" in the host country.

This is undoubtedly a setback for Spanish diplomacy, since the trip, announced last Thursday with a public statement, represented the total normalization of relations after they

were broken

more than two years ago.

At that time, diplomatic sources saw this trip as

a diplomatic success

that closed the great crisis in international relations that Pedro Sánchez has faced. It should be remembered that relations were twisted to try to solve the problems with Morocco.

Spain, under the foreign mandate of

Arantxa González Laya,

welcomed the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Gali, to Spain

.

This movement bothered the Alahuita kingdom, which allowed a massive crossing of immigrants across the Tarajal border, in Ceuta.

With the arrival of Albares to Foreign Affairs, they wanted to fix the situation with a series of concessions to Morocco that included a change in Spain's position on the Sahara. This caused the so-called withdrawal of the Algerian ambassador in Madrid and a diplomatic crisis with the country. Although the gas supply was never in danger, it did greatly complicate the situation for Spanish export companies with interests in Algeria.

A complicated situation

that Italy and France took advantage of to strengthen their relations with the country.

Albares spent his first months at the head of Spanish diplomacy solving the

problems with Morocco

, as it is our first trading partner. In parallel, there was discreet work in Algeria, which achieved a first step towards the normalization of relations at the end of last year, when Algiers sent

Abdelfetá Daghmun

as a new ambassador after 19 months without a representative.

Throughout this time, Albares has insisted that Algeria is a friendly country, and that Spain always has its hand extended to Algeria to maintain and develop the close relations of neighborliness and cooperation between the two countries. On January 14, Spanish exports of poultry products were authorized, and on February 5, those of red meat. Despite these

discreet advances

, Algeria has suspended a meeting twelve hours before it took place.