Country Profile

Covering 2.4m sq km, Algeria is the largest country in Africa, and borders the Mediterranean Sea in the north; Tunisia and Libya in the east; Niger and Mali in the south; and Mauritania, Western Sahara and Morocco in the west. Rich in oil and gas resources, which have supported relative stability in recent years, the country is also Africa’s fourth-largest economy. Algeria has strong trade ties with Europe and North America and is increasingly building links with its Maghreb neighbours as regional integration grows. This chapter contains a viewpoint with President Abdelaziz Bouteflika, and interviews with Mourad Medelci, President, Constitutional Council and Former Minister of Foreign Affairs; Lord Risby, UK Trade Envoy to Algeria; Anne Ruth Herkes, German State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology; and Martin Schulz, President, European Parliament.