Editing Foreign relations of Algeria (section)

==== A careful equilibrium between Cold War powers ====
Boumediene took pride in Algeria's non-aligned status, by claiming its distance from both Soviet-style socialism and Western capitalism, while the country enjoyed an increasing prosperity. However, support from the Communist bloc did not halt. Indeed, because of their dependence on raw materials and their lack of hard currencies, commerce between Third World countries was negligible. The USSR, on the contrary, was able to deliver military equipment, industrial expertise, and trade outputs: the Soviets replaced France as the first destination for Algerian wine, and provided 200,000 tons of wheat when a drought hit the country in 1966.

Once again, the support Algeria received from the Soviet bloc was not exclusive to that of the Western bloc. Even though Boumediene took strong public stands, as when he claimed in 1969 after a summer of violence against Algerians living in France that if the French government could not insure the security of Algerian immigrants, he would repatriate them regardless of the cost, [[Algeria–France relations|Algerian-French relations]] were progressively normalized during the 1970 decade. This posturing, like the nationalization of oil in 1971, served to increase his popularity in internal politics. However, France remained a model of prosperity, Algeria was still heavily dependent on France economically, and in 1975, French President [[Valéry Giscard d'Estaing]] made the first presidential visit since independence. More generally, Algeria continued to do business with the West, and avoided to be overly dependent on Soviet support. Indeed, despite the break of relations with the United States after the [[Six-Day War]] in 1967, the Americans had almost replaced France as Algeria's primary trade partner by the early 1970s. Therefore, the competition between the West and the USSR gave Algeria opportunities to diversify its economic partnerships.