Sánchez assures that the Government is working to "redirect" the relationship with Algeria

MADRID, 1 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, assured this Thursday that the Executive is working to "redirect" relations with Algeria, reduced to a minimum as a result of its decision to support the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara.

In an interview on Cadena SER, collected by Europa Press, Sánchez reiterated his desire to be able to travel to the Maghreb country and avoided going into details about the efforts at the diplomatic level that are being carried out to resolve the crisis, which will soon be They will be six months old.

"We are working so that the situation can be redirected," he said, expressing once again the Government's desire for this to happen.

"I have always defended that Spain can have extraordinary relations with two neighbors as important for Europe and for Spain as Morocco and Algeria", Sánchez insisted, in line with the position defended by the Executive since the crisis broke out, hence the is working "to restore the best relations" with Algiers.

This Tuesday, Sánchez had admitted that he "would love" to travel to Algeria during his press conference with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, after being asked if they planned to travel to this country, which the French President, Emmanuel Macron, visited last week. .

In recent months, Algeria has been the subject of growing interest from the EU and its member states for its potential in terms of hydrocarbons at a time when Europeans are looking for alternatives to the gas and oil that Russia has supplied until now.

In addition to Macron, the Italian Prime Minister, Mario Draghi, has also passed through Algiers in recent months, who closed an agreement to increase the supply of Algerian gas to Italy through the existing gas pipeline between the two countries.

In the case of Spain, Algeria was until a few months ago the main supplier of gas but after the crisis that broke out in March this trend has been reversed.

The Algerian government proceeded to call its ambassador in Madrid for consultations on March 19, one day after Morocco disclosed Sánchez's letter to Mohamed VI in which he stated that the autonomy plan presented in 2007 was "the a more solid basis" for a solution to the Sahara conflict.

Algeria went a step further and last June suspended the Treaty of Friendship, while also announcing the freezing of commercial operations, the latter measure that would have been revoked at the end of July, although Spanish exporters are still encountering obstacles to get their products to the North African country.