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

The Algerian Government has been following with great astonishment 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 noticed that French communication on this issue now seems to follow a strange and questionable practice of deliberately leaking information to carefully selected media outlets by the services of the French Ministry of Interior and the General Directorate of the French Police.

French decisions are now being announced through this unconventional channel, showing complete disregard for established diplomatic practices and entirely violating the provisions of the 2013 Algerian-French Agreement that establishes visa exemptions for diplomatic and service passport holders. In fact, to date, and in clear violation of Article 8 of this Agreement, Algeria has received no official French notification through the only legitimate channel for state relations—the diplomatic channel.

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

The Algerian Government wishes to formally note that France bears full and complete responsibility for the initial violations of the 2013 Agreement on visa exemptions for diplomatic and service passport holders. As soon as they occurred, these violations were addressed in an official statement from the Algerian authorities deploring them and holding the French party to account for its responsibilities in this matter.

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

Beyond these necessary clarifications, the Algerian Government “takes this opportunity to point out that regarding visa exemptions for diplomatic and service passport holders, Algeria has never been the requesting party. When visas were introduced in 1986 for nationals of both countries, France initiated the proposal to exempt diplomatic passport holders from this requirement. Algeria had then opposed it with a frank and unequivocal refusal.

Much later, during the 1990s, the French party renewed this same proposal three times, each time meeting with the same systematic refusal.

It was only in 2007, when the French party again pressed on this same subject, that the Algerian party finally agreed to conclude a bilateral agreement on visa exemptions for diplomatic passport holders.

And it was still at France’s initiative that a new Agreement, concluded in 2013, extended the exemption to service passport holders and abrogated the limited 2007 Agreement.

In total, it appears in practice that the French Government is leaning towards freezing or suspending the 2013 Agreement, while carefully avoiding assuming the responsibilities and consequences, in disregard of the relevant provisions of said Agreement.

Today, as in the past, Algeria has no particular interest in, nor any significant attachment to, this Agreement. It duly takes note of what appears to be a de facto suspension of the 2013 Agreement without France’s respect for the required procedures. It draws all the consequences and will respond with a strict application of reciprocity to the exact measure of the French party’s failure to honor its obligations and commitments.