Ln January 20, when the Trump 2.0 administration takes the reins of the United States, Algiers could count the days before an American sanction leaves the offices of the White House.
According to information from New York Times, Unless Donald Trump changes his mind, Marco Rubio is expected to succeed Anthony Blinken as secretary of state of the world’s leading power. A bitter opponent of the president-elect in the 2016 Republican primaries, the senator of Cuban origin subsequently became the president’s Foreign Affairs advisor.
Problem for the neighbor to the east, it was this senator from Florida who, in September 2022, while sanctions were raining down on the Russian Federation following the invasion of Ukraine, sent a letter to Antony Blinken. requesting the sanction of Algeria by ricochet.
In this letter, the senator informed the head of US diplomacy that “Algeria is among the top 4 buyers of Russian arms in the world, with an amount of seven billion dollars in 2021. This financial flow helps fuel the Russian war machine in Ukraine. However, you have not yet made use of the sanctions within your power”.
“I therefore encourage you to take the threat that Russia poses to the world seriously, and to take the necessary measures against the parties whose purchases of Russian equipment enable Russia to carry out its destabilizing actions.”, he concluded.
Two years later, the situation has not changed. From the American point of view, Russia is still undertaking its destabilizing actions, and Algeria is increasingly strengthening its military arsenal with Moscow.
Presumably, after the call between the head of the Kremlin and the next master of the Oval Office, Donald Trump should take more than 24 hours to seat Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky at the same table. Meanwhile, US sanctions on Moscow are expected to continue to apply. In this context, Marco Rubio would have a free hand to launch the sanctions he wanted Antony Blinken to apply.
However, as recalled by New York Timesthe favorite subjects of the man expected to manage American diplomacy in the years to come are more focused on Asia than on Africa or even Europe. China, Iran, and to a lesser extent, Venezuela, are Marco Rubio’s priorities.
