Fiercely independent Algeria is warily eyeing closer ties with the United States as it seeks to counter the growing threat of Islamist militants spreading across the vast Sahara. Scarred by a brutal war of independence with France and an Islamist insurgency in the 1990s, the North African giant has slowly been opening up to the United States and other world powers for the past decade and a half under President Abdelaziz Bouteflika.

For the past seven years, Algeria has retained the leading law firm of Foley Hoag, at $35,000 a month, to help court US policymakers eager to tap the country's experience fighting terrorism and its wealth of oil and gas resources. The firm’s campaign to "promote Algeria's role of peace and cooperation in world and regional affairs" has had recent successes.

In 2012 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited the country twice. That same year, the United States and Algeria launched a “bilateral strategic dialogue” focused on counterterrorism and regional security, political issues, economic matters and trade, education and civil society.

The hostage crisis at the In Amenas gas field in January 2013 further boosted US interest in a closer partnership. Clinton declared at the time that it was "absolutely essential" that the two countries "broaden and deepen" their counterterrorism cooperation. Later that year, the State Department signed off on the sale of maritime surveillance and air defense radar systems, marking a break with Algeria's historic reliance on Russian military gear.