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Algeria
Africa
The Maghrib
The Maghrib
(see Glossary) remains a politically, economically, and strategically
important area for Algerian foreign policy objectives. Sharing
economic, cultural, linguistic, and religious characteristics,
as well as national borders, the Maghrib nations have historically
maintained highly integrated diplomatic interests. Before Algerian
independence, the other Maghrib nations, former colonies themselves,
supported the revolutionaries in their fight against the French,
providing supplies, technical training, and political assistance.
After independence, relations became strained, especially between
Algeria and Morocco, whose conservative ideological orientation
conflicted with Algeria's socialist direction, and tensions existed
over boundary issues between the two. Accusations of harboring
political insurrectionists from each other's countries damaged
relations between Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia throughout the
1970s. In the 1980s, however, political and economic liberalization
in Algeria drew the countries closer together, and relations improved
dramatically. As Algeria's foreign policy orientation has shifted
toward regional concerns and away from unsustainable ideological
commitments, efforts toward forging a Greater Maghrib have dominated
Algerian foreign policy.
The notion of a Greater Maghrib has historical allusions to
a more glorious and precolonial past and has provided a unifying
objective to which all Maghrib leaders have subscribed. Achieving
more concrete steps toward political and economic cooperation,
however, has proved much more difficult because political and
economic rivalries and strategic regional interests have frequently
inhibited amicable relations. In 1964 a Maghrib Permanent Consultative
Committee was established to achieve a Maghrib economic community.
This committee was plagued with differences, however, and could
not reach an agreement on economic union. In the late 1980s, following
the historic diplomatic reconciliation between Algeria and Morocco,
an accord finally established an economic and political Union
of the Arab Maghrib (Union du Maghreb Arabe--UMA).
Morocco in June 1988 acceded to the formation of an inter-Maghrib
commission responsible for developing a framework for an Arab
Maghrib union. This action broadened the scope of the Treaty of
Fraternity and Concord that had originated in 1983 as a bilateral
agreement between Tunisia and Algeria. The treaty pledged each
nation to respect the other's territorial sovereignty, to refrain
from supporting insurrectionist movements in the other country,
and to abstain from using force for resolving diplomatic controversies.
Prompted by Tunisian diplomatic concerns about Libyan ambitions
and Algeria's hope to solidify its regionally predominant position
through a solid political confederation, Tunisia and Algeria opened
the agreement to all other Maghrib nations, and Mauritania joined
later the same year. (Mauritania's accession to the treaty precipitated
a bilateral agreement between Libya and Morocco, the Treaty of
Oujda, signed in August 1984, declaring political union and establishing
a regional dichotomy.)
The UMA treaty--signed in February 1989 in Marrakech, Morocco,
by Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia--provided
a loose framework for regional cooperation. It established a presidential
council composed of the heads of state of each member country;
the countries jointly shared a rotating presidency, a consultative
council, and a judicial body. Aside from Libya, political inclinations
for turning the UMA into a more substantial confederation have
been weak. Plans for a common economic market will not come into
effect until the year 2000, and bilateral agreements have dominated
political negotiations. The greatest significance of the UMA is
its symbolism. The North African economic union presents a potential
counterpart to the European Community, whose cooperation threatens
to undermine the position of Maghrib exports and migrant workers.
Political cooperation has presented a means of countering the
rise of Islamist radicals, who in the early 1990s were challenging
the political regimes in most if not all of the North African
nations. Finally, the UMA provides a regional forum for resolving
bilateral conflicts, the most notable of which has been the Algerian-Moroccan
dispute over the Western Sahara.
Algeria's relations with Morocco, its neighbor to the west and
most significant Maghrib rival, have been dominated by the issue
of self-determination for the Western Sahara. The national integrity
of this former colonial territory has caused a deepseated antagonism
and general mistrust between the two nations that has permeated
all aspects of Moroccan-Algerian relations. Algeria's interest
in the region dates back to the 1960s and 1970s when it joined
Morocco in efforts to remove the Spanish from the territory. After
Spain announced its intention to abandon the territory in 1975,
the united front presented by the two nations quickly disintegrated,
as a result of Morocco, and subsequently Mauritania, staking claims
to the territory. Algeria, although not asserting any territorial
ambitions of its own, was averse to the absorption of the territory
by any of its neighbors and called for self-determination for
the Saharan people. Before the Spanish evacuation, Spain, Morocco,
and Mauritania agreed to divide the territory and transfer the
major part to Morocco and the remaining southern portion to Mauritania.
This agreement violated a United Nations (UN) resolution that
declared all historical claims on the part of Mauritania or Morocco
to be insufficient to justify territorial absorption and drew
heavy Algerian criticism.
Guerrilla movements inside the Saharan territory, most especially
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el Hamra and Río
de Oro (Frente Popular para la Liberación de Saguia el Hamra y
Río de Oro--Polisario), having fought for Saharan independence
since 1973, immediately proclaimed the creation of the Saharan
Arab Democratic Republic (SADR). Algeria recognized this new self-proclaimed
state in 1976, and has since pursued a determined diplomatic effort
for international recognition of the territory; it has also supplied
food, matériel, and training to the guerrillas. In 1979, after
many years of extensive and fierce guerrilla warfare, Mauritania
ceded its territorial claims and withdrew. Morocco quickly absorbed
the vacated territory. Once the SADR gained diplomatic recognition
from the Organization of African Unity (OAU) and many other independent
states, Morocco came under international pressure. As a result,
the Moroccan government finally proposed a national referendum
to determine the Saharan territory's sovereignty in 1981. The
referendum was to be overseen by the OAU, but the proposal was
quickly retracted by the Moroccan king when the OAU could not
reach agreement over referendum procedures. In 1987 the Moroccan
government again agreed to recognize the Polisario and to meet
to "discuss their grievances." Algeria stipulated a solitary precondition
for restoration of diplomatic relations--recognition of the Polisario
and talks toward a definitive solution to the Western Saharan
quagmire. Without a firm commitment from the Moroccan king, Algeria
conceded and resumed diplomatic relations with Morocco in 1988.
The political stalemate and the guerrilla fighting have continued
almost uninterrupted since 1987. As of late 1993, UN efforts to
mediate the conflict as prelude to a referendum on the territory
seemed to be making modest headway.
Far less troublesome have been Algeria's relations with Tunisia.
Smaller and in a more precarious position vis-à-vis Libya, Tunisia
has consistently made efforts to align with Algeria. In the 1970s,
Tunisia reversed its position on the Western Sahara so as not
to antagonize Algerian authorities. Tunisia was the first nation
to sign the Treaty of Fraternity and Concord with Algeria, in
1983. Throughout Algeria's independent history, it has joined
in a number of economic ventures with Tunisia, including the transnational
pipeline running from Algeria through Tunisia to Italy. In 1987
the departure from power in Tunisia of President Habib Bourguiba
and his replacement by the more diplomatic Zine el Abidine Ben
Ali brought the two nations closer again.
Similarly, relations with Libya have generally been amicable.
Libyan support for the Polisario in the Western Sahara facilitated
early postindependence Algerian relations with Libya. Libyan inclinations
for full-scale political union, however, have obstructed formal
political collaboration because Algeria has consistently backed
away from such cooperation with its unpredictable neighbor. (A
vote by the CCN on June 30, 1987, actually supported union between
Libya and Algeria, but the proposal was tabled and later retracted
by the FLN Central Committee after the heads of state failed to
agree.) The Treaty of Oujda between Libya and Morocco, which represented
a response to Algeria's Treaty of Fraternity and Concord with
Tunisia, temporarily aggravated Algerian-Libyan relations by establishing
a political divide in the region--Libya and Morocco on one side;
Algeria, Tunisia, and Mauritania on the other. Finally, in 1988
Libya was invited to participate in the inter-Maghrib commission
that was responsible for developing the North African union. The
establishment of the UMA in February 1989 marked the first formal
political or economic collaboration between the two neighbors.
Data as of December 1993
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