Statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs - France 19/05/2025

The Algerian Government has been following with great surprise the recent developments in French communication regarding the visa issue in general and the exemption of diplomatic and service passports from this procedure in particular.

Indeed, the Algerian Government has not failed to note that French communication on this subject now appears to be based on a curious and dubious practice consisting of crudely organizing leaks to carefully selected media outlets by the French Ministry of the Interior and the French Police General Directorate.

It is now through this unusual channel that French decisions are being announced, in a total disrespect for established diplomatic practices and in an equally total violation of the provisions of the 2013 Algerian-French Agreement establishing visa exemptions for holders of diplomatic and service passports. And in fact, to this day, and in flagrant violation of the provisions of Article 8 of this Agreement, Algeria has not received any official French notification through the sole and only valid channel in relations between states, namely the diplomatic channel.

The Chargé d'Affaires of the French Embassy in Algiers, who has been summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs four times on this matter, has consistently stated that he had no instructions from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Similarly, to date, he has been unable to respond to Algeria's formal requests for clarification on this same matter.

The Algerian Government wishes to solemnly reiterate that it is the French side that bears full responsibility for the initial violations of the 2013 Agreement on visa exemptions for holders of diplomatic and service passports. As soon as they occurred, these violations were the subject of an official statement from the Algerian authorities, deploring them and holding the French side accountable for their responsibilities in this matter.

Further to this reminder, the Algerian Government rejects, as fundamentally inaccurate and untrue, the French allegation that Algeria was the first to fail to fulfill its obligations under the 2013 Agreement.

Beyond these essential clarifications, the Algerian Government takes this opportunity to reiterate that Algeria has never been a requester for visa exemptions for holders of diplomatic and service passports. When visas were introduced in 1986 for nationals of both countries, it was France that initiated a proposal to exempt holders of diplomatic passports from this requirement. Algeria then resolutely and unequivocally rejected the proposal. Much later, during the 1990s, the French side renewed this same proposal three times, but it met with the same systematic rejection.

It was only in 2007, when the French side once again returned to the same issue, that the Algerian side finally agreed to the conclusion of a bilateral agreement providing for visa exemptions for holders of diplomatic passports. And it was also at the initiative of the French side that a new Agreement, concluded in 2013, extended the exemption to holders of service passports and repealed the limited 2007 Agreement.

Overall, it appears in practice that the French government is moving toward freezing or suspending the 2013 Agreement, carefully avoiding assuming responsibility and consequences, in defiance of the relevant provisions of the Agreement. Today, as yesterday, Algeria has no particular interest in, nor any significant attachment to, this Agreement. It duly acknowledges what appears to be a de facto suspension of the 2013 Agreement without France complying with the required procedures. It draws all the necessary conclusions and will respond with a strict application of reciprocity commensurate with the French party's failure to meet its obligations and commitments.