Russia almost completely replaced France from Algerian grain market — newspaper
Experts project that in 2025 the volume of supplies will be zero, the newspaper stresses
PARIS, February 18. /TASS/. Algeria has stopped purchasing grain from France after the statements of the French President Emmanuel Macron about Western Sahara, which allowed Russian suppliers to secure a foothold on the market of this African state, the L'Opinion newspaper reported.
"Now Russia supplies 90% of the wheat the country needs," the publication notes.
According to its data, 10 years ago Paris was the main supplier of food for Algeria.
"Experts project that in 2025 the volume of supplies will be zero," the newspaper stresses.
As L'Opinion notes, French suppliers have been pushed out - they have stopped receiving orders from the Algerian side.
Macron's position on Western Sahara
On July 30, 2024, Macron sent a message to King Mohammed VI of Morocco on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of his ascension to the throne. In it, the French President stressed that "the present and future of Western Sahara are within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty."
Macron also assured Mohammed VI of the "inviolability of the French position on this issue of the national security of the kingdom."
The situation in Western Sahara has been the subject of a long-running international dispute for many decades. The independence of Western Sahara is sought by the Polisario Front, created in the mid-1970s, which, after the departure of the Spanish colonialists, proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and, with the support of Algeria, launched an armed struggle. Hostilities in the conflict zone continued until 1991 and ceased after the UN sent a peacekeeping mission there. Despite numerous peace initiatives by the international community, the dispute has not been resolved due to the diametrically opposite positions of the parties. Morocco considers Western Sahara an integral part of its territory and only allows for its autonomy within the kingdom. Since June 2007, Morocco and the Polisario Front have held four rounds of negotiations, but all have ended to no avail. Morocco currently controls about 80% of Western Sahara.