historical change of location Spain in Western Sahara diplomatic crisis with Algeria It is a situation that threatens the economy of the country. This Wednesday, Algeria considered the “immediate” suspension of the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborhood and Cooperation with Madrid, and the freezing of all its operations in return. foreign trade with whom he had ever been an ally.
Government on 18 March Pedro Sanchez announced that he was leaving his neutrality behind to support the autonomy plan. Morocco a turn on the former colony that is troubling Algeria’s ally, Algiers. people of the Sahara. Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, José Manuel Albares, He assured at the time that the change would not strain his relationship with Algeria; that promise was retracted less than three months later. And the crippled Friendship Treaty signed in 2002 guarantees economic cooperation between the two countries.
Freezing wire transfers to curb foreign trade with Spain could have a huge impact on the Spanish economy. economy Spanish. And from January to July 2021, Spain imported 2,237 million euros from Algeria, while the transaction volume in the other direction was 1.111 million. According to the Algerian Foreign Trade Directorate, Spain exported 2.735 million worth of goods to Algeria in 2019, the last year it was not affected by the pandemic.
Retaliation from Algeria could also affect the country. energy relationship It was considered a strategic priority of Spanish trade policy in Africa between both countries. Already in April, the Algerian government threatened to break the agreements. gas Its term with Spanish companies is about to expire if state company Sonatrach confirms that the eventual buyer is Morocco. As in March, Madrid assured that it was not afraid of gas supplies from Algeria. “There is no difficulty in gas flow,” Albares said.
Unlike other European countries that depend on Russiaabout 40% natural gas Spain’s need comes from Algeria. This dependency was 33%, 29.2% and 45.9% in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. Since the Maghreb-Europe (GME) through Tarifa and Morocco was shut down at the end of October last year, this gas mainly reaches Spain via the Medgaz gas pipeline, which directly connects the Algerian fields of Hassi R’mel to Almería. because of the bad relations between the two North African countries.
This diplomatic tension, along with the rise in energy prices, prompted Spain to maneuver to reduce its dependence on Algeria by increasing its purchases from other countries such as Egypt or Nigeria. So in January United States of America It has displaced Algeria in its historical position and is the largest liquefied natural gas with 34.6% of imports (shipped) compared to 25.4% from the African country, according to data from Enagás and Strategic Reserves Corporation (Cores). became the gas supplier. ). This ‘sorpasso’ means that if gas hits, reprisals from Algeria will be less harsh than they were a few months ago.
Increasing energy crisis with the invasion of Russia Ukraine It also caused Spain to export more gas to France than it imported from Algeria.