“More political and security dialogue, more investments, more exchanges and interconnections, more mobility and more communication” between Spain and Morocco. These are the objectives and commitments that Pedro Sánchez has assured that he set out in his last meeting with Mohamed VI in Rabat, on April 7, 2022, and that ten months later, as he has highlighted, are already verified achievements. With these words, the President of the Government opened the plenary session of the XII Morocco-Spain high-level meeting this Thursday. A speech in which, in the presence of the head of the Moroccan executive, Aziz Akhannouch, and all the ministers of the broad government delegations, Sánchez has introduced an implicit allusion to Ceuta and Melilla.
“We have assumed a commitment to mutual respect, whereby in our discourse and in our political practice we are going to avoid everything that we know offends the other party, especially as it affects our respective spheres of sovereignty”, he highlighted. Sanchez.
Previously, the head of the Moroccan government hailed Spain’s support for the Sahara autonomy plan, “as the most solid basis for resolving this artificial conflict.” This change of position of the Spanish government regarding the eternal conflict in the Sahara, despite the explicit rejection of the minority partner of the coalition, United We Can, is precisely what encouraged the recomposition of relations between the two countries, after the most serious diplomatic crisis suffered in decades.
“We have reaffirmed the validity and integrity of all the agreements between both parties: those that laid the foundations of our relations in the past, those that set our borders and those that establish advanced cooperation mechanisms,” Sánchez stressed. This includes, as he has pointed out, the joint declaration signed on April 7, and “will also include, now, the update of the Treaty of Good Neighborhood, Friendship and Cooperation”.
The Spanish president has placed emphasis before the Moroccan prime minister on “the close friendship that unites us, and our determined desire to bring our sister nations even closer”, to consolidate the “new open stage” between Spain and Morocco. “We do it with a great sense of responsibility and historical awareness and, above all, with the deep conviction of the enormous potential that remains to be explored in this relationship, which goes far beyond mere neighbourhood”, Sánchez stressed.
“We have committed to transparency and permanent communication. We will always resort to dialogue and not to fait accompli”, said the Spanish president, who has shown his “conviction that the opportunities that await our door can multiply the progress and stability of our peoples, if we know how to take advantage of them together”.
The new bilateral agenda between Spain and Morocco includes, as highlighted by Sánchez, “a reinforced political and security dialogue, with a mechanism to systematically monitor compliance with the agreements.” Also, an advanced economic association, “to develop new investment projects that accompany the extraordinary development process that Morocco is experiencing.” Sánchez has shown, in this sense, “very satisfied with the success of the first commercial expedition that took place last Friday through the customs of Ceuta and Melilla.”
“Together, we are going to guarantee that these customs offices continue to open in an orderly and progressive manner until the passage of people and goods is fully normalized, as we agreed last year”, assured the President of the Government.
