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Berlin, Germany – Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune was received with military honors at Villa Borsig on Thursday, above Lake Tegel, north of Berlin.
A few hours before the ceremony, he reminded a small group of guests, in French, of the progress of the relationship between the two countries.
“Algeria and Germany were not in the same league,” he told the delegation about Algeria’s long-standing relationship with Germany, in a statement heard by Al Jazeera.
The ceremony took place two weeks after the tanker, Tessala, docked near Wilhelmshaven on Germany’s North Sea coast after being loaded with gas from the GL2Z refinery near Oran, Algeria.
This was the first export of natural gas to Germany from the Algerian power company, Sonatrach.
The invitation of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to Tebboune to visit Germany was one of the business and political programs organized to strengthen cooperation between the two countries.
Thirty agreements were signed between German and Algerian companies at the economic conference in Berlin, including hydrocarbons, renewables and energy, chemicals, manufacturing and high technology.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who met with Tebboune at the Chancellery on Thursday, said that the visit was marked by “all the cooperation agreements” – including legal, commercial and transparent – between the German and Algerian companies, and he wanted to see the future of this matter.
On Wednesday, Tebboune spoke to Algerians at Hotel Adlon in Berlin, where he called Germany a good friend. He said that the two countries have agreed to work together in the hydrogen, natural gas, helium and automobile industries.
Why Algeria, and why
Tebboune’s visit comes at a critical time for Europe, which has been looking for new energy producers because of the global turmoil in recent years that has affected markets.
Russia’s share of pipeline gas imports from the EU has fallen since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, from 40 percent in 2021 to about 6 percent last year.
In January, the European Council imposed a ban on Russian LNG and gas pipelines from March 18, 2026, with a deadline to replace existing agreements.
Algeria has contributed to this shortfall, with Norway now supplying 54.4 percent of EU natural gas in 2025 and Algeria second at 18.5 percent. Algeria’s role appears to be growing, with this share rising to 20 percent of EU pipeline exports in the first quarter of 2026.
Merz acknowledged this, saying that Algeria is making “a very important contribution to the security of European energy” and pointed out that the country also has “very important reserves, including gas, oil and incalculable land”.
The needs of the world are some of the things that Europe has spent three years trying to get out of China and Russia.
Standing next to Merz on Thursday at a press conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, Tebboune gave the words Germany must have wanted to hear.
“We are careful to be a reliable supplier – we always meet our requirements,” he said, promising that Algerian goods will not only go to Germany, but to all of Europe.
The pledge comes at a critical time for Europe, with Qatari LNG exports disrupted by the US-Israel war on Iran, after Iran attacked ships in the Strait of Hormuz.
The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) has now predicted that the United States will overtake Norway as the EU’s largest gas supplier in 2026.
Among these challenges, it is good that Algerian gas can reach Europe directly through a pipeline under the Mediterranean.
“Algeria is very important to Europe, and especially to Germany, if it wants to restore its jobs in the next three to five years,” Michael Ayari, an expert on Algeria at the International Crisis Group, told the Frankfurter Rundschau. “It can increase gas imports and compensate for the loss of Russian gas.”
Behind it is the Trans-Saharan pipeline, a line about 4,000km (2,500 miles) long and intended to transport up to 30 billion cubic meters (1.06 trillion cubic feet) of Nigerian gas each year through Niger and Algeria to Europe.
Sonatrach began welding its 1,210km (752-mile) section in June, which will feed into the national grid and Hassi R’Mel, in northern Algeria, Africa’s largest natural gas field.
The hydrogen method
Hydrogen, which is considered a more efficient energy source than LNG, became a prominent part of the press conference. Both Tebboune and Merz returned to the subject of the Southern Hydrogen Corridor, a 3,300km (2050 miles) dedicated hydrogen pipeline linking North Africa to Italy, Austria and Germany. It is recognized as a Project of Common Interest under the TEN-E law of the EU, which should accelerate the approval of permits and access to funds from the Connecting Europe Facility. The potential of the design, according to the promoters of the project, is 4 million tons of green hydrogen per year.
Tebboune called it a pioneering project and thanked Germany for its support, while Merz said Berlin would advance the initiative together with Italy.
On January 21, 2025, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy, Austria and Germany signed a Joint Declaration of Political Objectives in Rome, at a meeting that the representatives of the European Commission and the EU have now labeled “Team Europe initiative” under its Global Gateway approach.
Transmission operators have started practical training. The pipeline will transport hydrogen produced in Algeria, which is the center of the pipeline, through Tunisia on the Mediterranean Sea to Italy, Austria and Germany, with the first project in Algeria and Tunisia.
The stall has political support at the highest level, confirmed by Merz’s support on Thursday, and strong interest from retail customers along the way. What is still needed is the construction of offtake agreements, long-term purchase agreements that will allow investment decisions to go forward.
“On the part of Algeria, the hope is that Germany will now send clear signals that the green hydrogen produced in Algeria will be bought,” Oliver Blank, director of the German-Algerian Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Algiers, told ARD. No German company has yet signed an agreement to extract hydrogen from Algeria.
He did not answer the question
One name is not mentioned in the introduction. Christophe Gleizes, French freelance sports journalist and contributor to So Foot and Society magazines. He was arrested in Tizi Ouzou in May 2024 while reporting for the JS Kabylie football club and accused of glorifying “terrorism” for his association with the Movement for the Self-Determination of Kabylie.
He was sentenced to seven years in June 2025, and an appeals court upheld the decision on December 3. Reporters Without Borders, a press freedom organization, describes him as the only French journalist in prison anywhere in the world.
When a German reporter asked Tebboune about a plea for mercy from Gleizes’ supporters, asking the president to pardon the journalist, he responded strongly but without opposition.
“With respect to the Algerian courts, I will not answer this question except in Algeria,” he replied. “Now I’m in Germany, not Algeria.”
Cases of this nature have moved between Algiers and Berlin in the past, including the case of Franco-Algerian prisoner Boualem Sansal. He was pardoned on humanitarian grounds in November 2025 following Germany’s request and flew to Berlin for treatment.
Merz closed the press conference with a statement of condolence to the children who were killed in a fire at an orphanage in Dar El Beida, outside Algiers, on the evening of the visit.
