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President Nicolas Sarkozy on Tuesday sought to focus on closer commercial ties with Algeria after seeking to ease France’s fraught relations with Algeria by condemning his country’s colonial rule as “profoundly unfair”.On his first state visit to the former French colony, Mr Sarkozy on Monday night went some way to answering Algerian demands for “repentance”, saying that colonisation was “contrary to the three founding principles of our republic: liberty, equality, fraternity”.However, he stopped short of expressing regret let alone an apology for French occupation, and made a point of honouring the “innumerable victims on both sides” of Algeria’s brutal war of independence from 1954 to 1962.Mr Sarkozy on Tuesday focused on developing business links between the two countries, particularly in the energy sector, with French companies expected to sign big contracts.Gaz de France will extend its long-term purchasing contracts of Algerian gas until 2019 - a deal worth €15bn between 2014-19 - and step up its co-operation with Sonatrach for the sale of liquefied natural gas in overseas markets, particularly the US.The company is also hoping to invest a further €1bn to develop its gas field at Touat in the Sahara, but this depends on the construction of an 800km new gas pipeline. Total, the French oil company, and Sonatrach, the Algerian state-owned energy group, will officially launch a joint venture for the development of a petrochemical plant at Arzew, western Algeria. Total is investing €1.5bn in a new €3bn ethane production unit on the site.Alstom, the engineering group, is expected to unveil plans to build a tram assembly plant in Algeria. The company has won contracts to equip the cities of Constantine and Oran with tram systems and to run the metro system in Algiers, the capital.Mr Sarkozy said that France would also sign a partnership agreement with Algeria in the field of nuclear energy.The French government regards Algeria as a strategically important ally in North Africa, not least because of its huge energy reserves.It is the third largest supplier of gas to France, but with the fifth largest gas reserves in the world it can expect to rise to the top slot as North Sea gas runs out.Its importance as supplier of gas prompted Mr Sarkozy to float the idea of a merger between GdF and Sonatrach earlier this year, although in the end the French group is to join forces with Suez.Mr Sarkozy regards extending French access to Algerian gas as a key element in his plan for closer political and economic co-operation between states around the Mediterranean.The relationship between the two countries is also important because of population flows and the common threat from Islamist terrorism.There are around 900,000 Algerians and French citizens of Algerian descent living in France.But the baggage of history weights heavily on the relationship. Mr Sarkozy’s election as president has added to the tensions. During his campaign, he wooed far-right voters by repeatedly rejecting the idea that France should repent for its colonial sins, a consistent demand of Algeria’s nationalist government. His clampdown on immigration has also played badly in the former colony.Algerian resentment at France periodically boils over, most recently last week when Mohamed Chérif Abbas, the minister for war veterans, attributed Mr Sarkozy’s election victory to the influence of the “Jewish lobby”. The comments triggered a storm of protest in France and were eventually disavowed by Abdulaziz Bouteflika, the Algerian president.As in the days of Noah
