Macron and Tebboune sign partnership agreement

(27 Aug 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Algiers - 27 August 2022
1. Push in, pan of French President Emmanuel Macron and Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune signing partnership agreement
2. Macron signing and closing document folder
3. Leaders standing up, shaking hands and exchanging signed documents, UPSOUND applause
4. Wide of Macron and Tebboune standing behind microphones
5. SOUNDBITE (French) Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Algerian President:
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
"President (Emmanuel) Macron, with whom I totally agreed, thought it was important that we speak ourselves to highlight this great, necessary and useful visit for the relationship between our two countries. I think it is a success, it is a very successful visit which has put a lot of things back in the right place and which has enabled a rapprochement which wouldn't have been possible without the personality of President Macron, and I thank him for this visit."
6. Wide of Macron and Tebboune during news conference
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Emmanuel Macron, French President:
"The relationship between us is one of intimacy. And so, when sometimes there are misunderstandings, these misunderstandings take on proportions there are not between two countries that are totally foreign to each other other. And so the will that is ours, what we celebrate today, what we are going to work on and with, us, all those who are in this room, it is to work so that intimacy is strengthened by having a permanent dialogue on all subjects - including subjects that sometimes prevented us from moving forward because memory and history kept coming up - with this new method, this new approach that we are adopting together for the first time."
8. Macron and Tebboune shaking hands, audience applauding, leaders leaving
STORYLINE:
The leaders of France and Algeria took an important step Saturday towards mending relations scarred by disputes over migration and the legacy of colonial crimes, agreeing to cooperate on energy, security and reassessing their joint history.
French President Emmanuel Macron wrapped up a three-day visit to Algeria with a raft of accords that France hopes will smooth ties with Africa’s largest country, a major gas and oil supplier to Europe and an influential regional military player.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune hailed “a very successful visit" and credited Macron’s personal efforts toward rapprochement.
The two were chummy at their final meeting Saturday, smiling, embracing and holding hands.
Tebboune specifically praised their meetings on security, without elaborating.
But the joint accords released by Macron’s office were thin on specifics, and stop far short of an official apology for France's colonial-era wrongdoing, which Algerians have long clamored for.
They included agreements on gas and hydrogen research, medical research, sports cooperation and a joint commission to examine archives from the 130 years when Algeria was the crown jewel in France's empire and from Algeria's eight-year independence war.
Macron promised France would become more flexible in issuing visas to citizens of Algeria after a major diplomatic crisis between the two countries over the issue last year.
Economic cooperation was a major part of the trip.
Russia's war in Ukraine has reinforced the North African nation's role as a key energy supplier as European countries seek alternatives to Russian energy.
Macron's office said he would also raise human rights concerns. A
Algeria has seen a creeping crackdown on dissent since pro-democracy protests in 2019.
AP video shot by Oleg Cetinic.

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