Fatima Zohra Bouaziz |
Rabat (EFE) which in Rabat is perceived as the best in relations between the two countries.
On March 18 of last year, the Moroccan royal cabinet released a letter that Sánchez sent a few days before to King Mohamed VI in which he supports the Moroccan autonomy proposal presented in 2007 before the United Nations, considering it “the most serious, credible basis for and realistic” for the resolution of the conflict that dates back 47 years.
The change in position of Spain closed a diplomatic crisis with Rabat unleashed in April 2021, when Spain admitted the hospitalization of the leader of the Saharawi independence movement Polisario Front and president of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), Brahim Gali, enemy number 1 of Morocco, but opened another crisis with Algeria, which last June decided to break the Spanish-Algerian Friendship Treaty.
Since then, Morocco and Spain started a new era with close coordination in various areas. “Relations between Spain and Morocco are going through their best moment,” says Said Saddiki, a professor of international relations at the Fez faculty.
This new stage is marked by the signing last April of a roadmap between Sánchez and Mohamed VI that covers all areas of cooperation between the two countries, and has been consolidated with the celebration at the beginning of last February in Rabat of the Réunion of High Level (RAN) Spanish-Moroccan, the first in eight years.
The “normalization” of the border
The meeting, headed by Sánchez and his Moroccan counterpart, Aziz Ajanuch, and with the presence of some twenty ministers from both countries, culminated in the signing of 19 memorandums of understanding and a financial protocol to encourage Spanish investment.
The meeting was marked by the absence of the Moroccan king, who spoke by phone with Sánchez and invited him to visit the country, a call that Moroccan official sources highlight as it is the first time that the monarch has addressed a personal invitation to a head of government.
At that meeting, both countries agreed to avoid offensive statements on sovereignty issues and to continue advancing on various issues, including the customs of Ceuta and Melilla, which are especially relevant for Madrid when it comes to reinforcing its sovereignty over these Spanish enclaves in the north. of Africa that Morocco traditionally describes as “occupied prisons”.
The Spanish government recently assured that steps are being taken “towards the full normalization of the land border” between the two countries with two pilot tests carried out in January and February to establish customs in both enclaves, although for the moment they have not been opened.
Boat arrivals drop 25%
Trade cooperation was one of the key points of the summit. Spain has been Morocco’s main trading partner for more than a decade with a flow of 19,000 million euros in 2022, but Moroccan officials unanimously expressed their desire for Spain to position itself among the first foreign investors in the Maghreb country.
Another of the vital areas of cooperation between the two countries is irregular emigration. Coinciding with the normalization of relations between the two countries, irregular entries fell by 25% last year, according to figures from the Spanish Ministry of the Interior.
The “concrete results” of the new relationship between Spain and Morocco are also palpable in the field of police cooperation and the fight against terrorism which culminated, according to the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, with the development of 22 joint operations in which detained 105 people in the last eight years.
According to what EFE has learned from Moroccan government sources, there is fluid communication and “a great understanding” between the two departments on matters of security, migration and terrorism.
joint application
One year after the Sánchez letter, the greatest staging of the consolidation of relations between the two neighboring countries, according to several experts, is the joint candidacy with Portugal for the organization of the 2030 World Cup.
The announcement was made by King Mohamed VI in a message read this Tuesday by the Minister of Education, Chakib Benmusa, in Kigali (Rwanda), during the delivery of the 2022 Excellence Award granted to the monarch by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). ).
The following day, the President of the Spanish Government and the Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Costa, applauded the candidacy which, according to the leaders, sends a “good message” of union between Africa and Europe, and between the two shores of the Mediterranean.
For the analyst Saddiki, “the announcement of the joint candidacy confirms that relations are evolving very well.”