By welcoming Malian Prime Minister Abdoulaye Maïga on Monday, August 24, 2026, the Algiers regime is attempting to draw a line under more than two years of a major diplomatic crisis of its own making. But beneath the veneer of official embraces and the rhetoric of “pragmatism,” this volte-face reveals yet another capitulation. From Madrid to Paris, via Niamey and now Bamako, Abdelmadjid Tebboune’s Algeria relentlessly repeats the same pattern of diplomatic drift, alternating between theatrical outbursts, futile sanctions and humiliating retreats, at the cost of a total loss of credibility.