The Diplomat
The Minister of Interior, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, received yesterday in Madrid his Algerian counterpart, Kamel Beldjoud, with whom he pledged to explore new preventive actions to alleviate migratory pressure in the Mediterranean region.
During the meeting, held at the Ministry’s headquarters, Grande-Marlaska affirmed that Algeria is “a priority and a key player” for Spain in the field of security. “Our countries share many common interests and challenges, with important challenges that require, today more than ever, joint responses that offer effective solutions,” the minister stated. “For this, bilateral cooperation based on commitment and joint work is essential,” he added, quoted in a press release from the Ministry.
Likewise, the Interior Minister expressed his desire to continue with these bilateral meetings “to further strengthen the understanding between the two countries.” Grande-Marlaska visited Algeria in August 2020 and the two ministers met last May in Lisbon, on the occasion of the European Union-Africa summit on home affairs. In addition, they have been in contact by telephone and videoconference on several occasions, most recently on October 13. The Minister has already visited Algeria three times.
According to the Ministry, yesterday’s work agenda included among its points the fight against irregular immigration and organized crime and the two ministers committed themselves to “explore new preventive actions to alleviate migratory pressure in the region”. Likewise, Grande-Marlaska thanked his Algerian counterpart for the police cooperation in the south of the country, “essential to ensure that the migratory pressure from sub-Saharan countries does not increase”.
The Algerian minister, accompanied during his visit by the general director of Civil Protection, Boualem Boughalef, the director of International Cooperation, Mohamed Kaili, and the director of Studies and Synthesis, Mohamed Taiba, was particularly interested in the functioning of the civil protection system in Spain, the management of road safety and the Spanish model of citizen security. For this reason, yesterday he held other meetings with the Director General of Civil Protection and Emergencies, Leonardo Marcos, and the Director General of Traffic, Pere Navarro, and will meet today with the Director General of Police, Francisco Pardo, and with the Director General of Coordination and Studies of the Secretary of State for Security, José Antonio Rodríguez.
Spain and Algeria have pending the holding of their bilateral High Level Meeting (RAN), which was initially scheduled for the second half of 2020 but was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The last HLM was held in 2018 in Algeria. Apart from that, the main point of interest at the moment in bilateral relations is Spain’s desire to obtain sufficient guarantees from Algeria for the supply of gas from its territory, in the midst of the serious diplomatic crisis opened between Algiers and Rabat that has led to the closure of the Maghreb gas pipeline through which arrived, through Morocco, more than 20% of the gas supplied by the North African country to our country.
