Last updated in April 2009
Political relations
Political relations between Algeria and Germany have traditionally been good and amicable. Even in the 1990s, when the Algerian government came under attack from an unprecedented wave of Islamic terrorism, Germany maintained diplomatic ties with the country.
Algeria has now re-emerged from the ‘black years’ of international isolation and continues to consolidate its position as a regional power in Africa and in the Arab world as well as a partner in dialogue with the West.
Relations between Germany and Algeria have since continued to improve. In early April 2001, President Bouteflika became the first Algerian president to pay an official visit to Germany. The visit by Federal President Köhler in November 2007 was the first official visit to Algeria by a German President and marked an important step forward in German-Algerian relations. Federal Chancellor Merkel visited Algeria in July 2008.
Economic relations
Now that the country has largely succeeded in overcoming the domestic crisis that affected it in the 1990s and has made an economic recovery, there is today tremendous potential for further developing relations. Algeria is becoming increasingly important for Europe as a supplier of energy, ranking eleventh among the world’s leading oil producers and fourth as a supplier of natural gas. The country’s needs for modern industrial plant and infrastructure offer an ideal market for German producers.
In recent years, German direct investments have been worth a total of approximately EUR 350 million, including several important joint ventures, for example in industrial gas production and rail electrification. Over 150 German companies are already operating on the Algerian market with their own branches, liaison offices and commercial agents.
On 3 October 2005, the Association for the Promotion of Algerian-German Economic Relations (APREAA) was converted into a bilateral chamber of commerce and has since been part of the DIHK’s network of German Chambers of Commerce Abroad. The German Chamber of Commerce Abroad (AHK) in Algeria was officially opened on 1 June 2006. It currently has some 600 members.
In 2008, German imports from Algeria were worth USD 2.58 billion, oil and petroleum products accounting for 98.5 per cent of the total. In 2008, German exports to Algeria totalled USD 2.33 billion. Germany’s principal exports are machinery, motor vehicles, electrical goods and chemical products.
Germany and Algeria have signed an investment protection agreement, a shipping agreement and a double taxation agreement, which entered into force in December 2008. A new air transport agreement is in preparation.
Development cooperation
Germany’s development cooperation (DC) institutions have been active in Algeria since the country’s independence in 1962. Long-term experts have been seconded to Algeria again since 2003. Based on many years of positive experience, Algeria considers Germany a reliable partner in bilateral development cooperation.
Since cooperation commenced in 1962, total German payments under Technical Cooperation, which have continued without interruption since 1974, have amounted to around EUR 200 million. During the same period, some EUR 180 million was made available for long-term loans and funding contributions under Financial Cooperation. In November 2005, the 15th German-Algerian intergovernmental negotiations on development cooperation were held in Algiers. A new framework agreement on Technical Cooperation came into force on 16 December 2006.
Cultural relations
After a lengthy interruption, German cultural events (concerts, lectures and film screenings) have again been staged in Algiers since 1999. The first German-Algerian consultations on cultural cooperation were successfully concluded and a joint protocol agreed on in September 2002.
The Goethe Institute in Algiers was founded in 1963. After being closed for a number of years (1994-2001), it resumed its work in 2003, is at present located on the premises of the German Embassy and been continually extending its activities again, not only in Algiers. Besides cultural events, library liaison work and upgrading measures for German teachers and multipliers, German courses have also been conducted again since 2004. In November 2005, a Dialogue Point German was opened in Oran in western Algeria in cooperation with the local university.
Some 5,000 pupils and students learn German at 200 Algerian schools and at the German departments of the universities in Algiers and Oran. In addition, German is taught at the central university-level language centres. In early October 2008, a German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) lecturer began work at the University of Oran Es-Senia.
The political foundations have also been holding events again in Algeria since 1999. The Friedrich Ebert Foundation has run an office in Algiers since 2002. The Konrad Adenauer and Friedrich Naumann Foundations have since opened liaison offices there, too. Since the summer of 2008, the German Archaeological Institute has been engaged in the restoration of the antiquities museum at Cherchell. A successful restoration campaign was conducted on the ground. Follow-up campaigns are planned.
