Algeria's chief diplomat mounted a full-throated defence of his country's foreign policy principles.
Faced with rising criticism over Algeria's response to the recent events in the Arab world, Foreign Minister Mourad Medelci made a robust defence of his country's foreign policy.
Algeria has adopted "responsible positions" on developments in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Syria, he told the parliament on December 4th.
These positions are "founded on principles that have guided Algerian diplomacy for decades, including support for just causes, non-interference in the domestic affairs of other states, and respect of peoples' choices and will to determine their own future", Medelci added.
Algeria's foreign policy stance is "perfectly consistent", he added, and serves "the supreme interests of Algeria and its strategic interests at the regional and Arab levels".
With regards to Libya, the diplomat maintained that Algeria "had not erred in assessing the position toward the conflict".
"We were dealing with an existing regime, and after this regime departed, we are dealing with the new situation," he said. "The negative effects with the Libyan authorities will disappear with time."
Co-operation with Libya is moving "towards building brotherly relations able to meet the aspirations of our two people based on a positive understanding of our positions," Medelci said. He pointed out that Libya's National Transitional Council (NTC) chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil would soon pay a visit to Algeria.
Speaking about inter-Maghreb relations, Medelci pointed to the political and economic conditions that "had hampered efforts by the countries' leaders to move the Arab Maghreb Union towards a better future". Still, he maintained that developments over the past few years had "laid a path for renewed efforts leading to greater involvement towards that end".
The remarks came in response to criticism from the media and policy-makers that Algeria's policy vis-à-vis neighbouring states was out of step with the rapidly changing reality.
The opposition party, Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), expressed concern over the "decline" of the Algerian diplomacy at the regional and local levels, citing the Qatari mediation that was behind the meeting of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika with Abdel Jalil.
For his part, Movement for a Society for Peace (MSP) chairman Bouguerra Soltani called on Algeria to "play a greater role consistent with the scale of the challenges taking place, and more action at the level of nations and regional and international bodies".
"What Algeria has done is insufficient, given its central role," he said.
Former foreign ministry spokesman Abdelaziz Rahabi struck a similar chord. "Algeria today is living as though it is outside the framework of real-time," he said.
Several newspapers claimed that Algerian diplomacy was largely absent from the Arab Spring.
According to daily El Khabar, "there are those who say Algeria is now paying the price for dealing poorly with the Arab revolutions and that there was no differentiation between the interests of Algeria and the interests of the Algerian regime".
Algeria "was bound by dead silence in the face of the Arab revolutions", according to Echourouk. The newspaper blamed Medelci for what it described as the absence of a clear position on the Arab Spring.
Algerian State Minister and presidential representative Abdelaziz Belkhadem responded to these reports, saying: "Algeria in no way supports repressive regimes".
Algeria valued a relationship with Moamer Kadhafi and people's committees as they "were legitimate institutions", Belkhadem said, "until they fell".
Regarding Tunisia, the official said: "We had a relationship with the state and not with Ben Ali. In the end, after the fall of Ben Ali, the first visit of Prime Minister Caid Essebsi was to Algeria, and the first visit of Rachid Ghannouchi was also to Algeria."
© Magharebia.com 2011
