Communiqué of the French Embassy: Unacceptable in Form and Substance, Says Algiers
✍️ BY: Dr. Hana Saada
Algiers, Algeria | The communiqué issued by the Embassy of France concerning consular agents in Algeria has been deemed unacceptable in both form and substance by Algiers.
The French side attempted to shift onto the Algerian authorities the responsibility for the non-accreditation of French diplomatic and consular agents. Such an evasion could only elicit a reaction from Algiers, insofar as it carried with it more than one grievance — both in form and in content.
Indeed, the Chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of the French Republic in Algiers was summoned on Wednesday to the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) by the Director General of Protocol, according to a communiqué from the Ministry. The communiqué specifies that this summons “comes in response to the statement made public by the French diplomatic representation concerning the accreditation of French diplomatic and consular agents in Algeria.”
“This manner of acting by the Embassy is not tolerable”
In detail, it stressed that “the attention of the French diplomat was firmly drawn to the serious breach of diplomatic practices, the most firmly established, that characterizes the said communiqué,” the same source indicated. “In this context, he was informed that in both its form and its content, this communiqué was unacceptable, given that it contained a tendentious presentation of the facts and that it addressed itself directly to Algerian public opinion in order to impute to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs an alleged exclusive and total responsibility for the non-accreditation of French diplomatic and consular agents in Algeria,” the MFA explained.
“From the point of view of form, this manner of acting by the Embassy is not tolerable, as it violates both the spirit and the letter of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations of 1961,” the same source underlined. “From the point of view of substance, the French diplomat was reminded that he was personally the best informed about the background and the developments of this situation,” the MFA noted.
In this regard, the communiqué pointed out that “the non-accreditation of French diplomatic and consular agents in Algeria occurred only after a similar French decision and after the exhaustion, at the initiative of the Algerian side, of all possible avenues for settling this dispute to the satisfaction of both countries.” For the Algerian side, “this was, quite simply, nothing other than the strict application of the principle of reciprocity,” recalling in this respect that “it was the French government which, for more than two years, was at the origin of the refusal to accredit Algerian heads of mission and consular agents in France.”
Three Consuls General, Six Consuls, and Forty-Six Other Diplomats Have Not Received Accreditation
As a consequence of this situation, three Algerian Consuls General and six Consuls have not received their requested accreditations for more than six months. Likewise, 46 Algerian diplomatic and consular staff have been unable to take up their posts in France due to the silence observed by the French side with regard to their requests for accreditation, the MFA explained.
“This situation, deliberately and calculatedly created by the French authorities, gravely harms Algerian nationals residing in France, both in that it impacts the provision of consular services to their benefit and undermines the quality of the consular protection to which they are entitled,” the communiqué emphasized.
In conclusion, “it was strongly pointed out to the French diplomat that he himself is aware that the visa issue is not strictly linked to the question of accreditations, and that it is a matter of public knowledge that his government has elevated this issue into the central lever of the standoff it wishes to impose on Algeria,” the same source stated.
The MFA further observed that the French authorities are not at their first attempt in what can only be described as visa blackmail. “The first phase of this blackmail ended with Algeria’s denunciation of the 2013 Algerian-French Agreement on the reciprocal exemption of visas for holders of diplomatic and service passports. Today, the French authorities are opening a second phase, this time concerning ordinary passports, which they intend to manage through blackmail, bargaining, and intimidation,” the Ministry concluded.
Nevertheless, Algiers has previously made it clear that blackmail and intimidation will not alter its position, which is firmly built upon respect for diplomatic practices, consular procedures, and international conventions.
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