Algeria intervened at the beginning of this year 2025 to solve the domestic gas crisis that Tunisia suffered, amid rising domestic demand due to low temperatures in the country.
The Tunisian Ministry of Industry, Mines and Energy announced on January 3 that it had obtained more than 22 thousand tons of domestic gas from Algeria, to meet the increase in domestic demand due to the cold wave that the country is experiencing during the winter.
A report by Anatolia Agency says that this is not the first time that Algeria has helped Tunisia during the past few years, with the severity of Tunisia’s financial and economic challenges.
- In 2020, Algeria deposited $150 million with Tunisia.
- $30 million loan in December 2021.
- Another $200 million loan and $100 million grant in December 2022.
In December 2021, the two countries signed 27 agreements related to security, justice, industry and energy.
Deeper attribution
The Algerian journalist residing in Tunisia, Nasr al-Din Ben Hadid, said that what is more important than official loans “is that Algeria turns a blind eye to the transfer of basic goods to Tunisia by Tunisians visiting Algeria and allows Tunisians to supply themselves from the Algerian market.”
Anadolu Agency quoted Ben Hadid as saying, “From Tabarka (Jendouba Province – north) to Hazoua (Tozeur Province – southwest), the basic income of Tunisians is supported by Algeria… in addition to Tunisia being an essential destination for Algerian tourism abroad.”
Ben Hadid said, “Algeria’s relations with Tunisia have no place for ideology. They deal with the existing official authorities, regardless of their ideas. Algeria wants to maintain security and cooperation, and for years there have been about 300,000 Tunisians working in Algeria.”
In previous comments, Ayman Rahmani, Director of Studies and International Cooperation at the National Tourism Office (a government affiliated with the Ministry of Tourism), said, “The Algerian market achieved a record high for the first time in 2023, exceeding alone more than 3 million tourists to Tunisia out of nearly 9.3 million tourists.” .
One-sided relationship
Former Tunisian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ouness said, “There is a continuing belief on the part of the Algerian leadership that it has a historical mission by virtue of its geographical centrality and by virtue of the economic energy it possesses. It is the reference in advancing the establishment of the Greater Maghreb.”
He added, “We in Tunisia went through a democratic revolution that shook the foundations of the regimes surrounding us. However, Algeria maintained its political choice and extended a helping hand to Tunisia, which needed deeper economic assistance than its neighbors.”
For his part, the professor of economics at the Tunisian University, Reda Al-Shakandali, pointed out other economic aspects that encouraged good relations between Tunisia and Algeria.
He told Anatolia, “The Tunisian-Algerian economic relationship is one-sided on the basis that Tunisia has an energy deficit in the gas it needs from Algeria.”
Al-Shakandali added, “The economy only moves with energy, and there is a kind of Tunisian dependency on Algeria, with which we did not have a trade deficit. Now it is third after China and Russia.”
He warned that “there may be dependency in making important political decisions, including moving towards the Eastern bloc and even following policies that tend towards protectionism.”
