Alistair Burt (R) Abdelkader Messahel (L) in Algiers, April 2011.
British Foreign Office Minister for the Middle East and North Africa Alistair Burt is to pay a two-day visit to Algeria in an apparent bid to hunt for new natural resources for Britain through greater security cooperation with Algiers.
Burt’s trip follows British Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to the African country late in January and will focus on a new strategic security agreement between Algiers and London, Algeria Press Service quoted a British diplomatic source as saying.
Burt is planned to hold talks with Algerian ministers including Minister for Maghreb and African Affairs Abdelkader Messahel during his stay.
Top on the agenda of the British minister will be the security situation in Sahel, Syria and Libya as well as bilateral trade.
Cameron’s visit to Algeria was the first by a British PM since the African nation won independence from France in 1962.
The PM’s travel followed the Amenas gas plant siege and raised speculations that London is planning a security presence in Algeria, which supplies 5 percent of Britain’s gas needs.
The move will give London a toehold in the strategic North African country, which is a neighbor of Libya and Mali.
Britain is involved in the French offensive on the Malian dissidents near the Algerian borders.
London also has significant oil interests in Libya and the Algerian security deal triggers fears that British officials are planning new imperialistic moves to hunt for resources in other countries.
Britain said in a state-prepared Energy Security Strategy back in November that “declining reserves of fossil fuels in the North Sea are making the UK increasingly dependent on imports at a time of rising global demand and increased resource competition”, which is leaving the UK “increasingly exposed to the pressures and risks of global markets”.
The document said North Sea oil supplies that currently account for 70 percent of Britain’s oil demand will run out in 20 years in the context of a 15 percent rise in the global oil demand by 2035.
AMR/HE
