A key summit was held in Rabat on Wednesday to normalise the bilateral relations between both nations, which had many shared challenges on the agenda, including how to deal with migration flows.
Spain’s socialist Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, and several key Ministers of the left-wing Government arrived in Rabat on Wednesday afternoon for the long-awaited high-level meeting with Morocco, EURACTIV’s partner EFE reported.
The summit comes at a time of particular tension between Morocco and the EU, following the recent European Parliament resolution calling on the Maghreb country to respect freedom of expression and in the context of suspicions of its involvement in Qatargate.
Sánchez, whose Socialist MEPs voted against the European Parliament’s resolution, wants to soften bilateral tensions and strengthen ties with his strategic southern neighbour.
One of the “hot potatoes” between Madrid and Rabat is the issue of migration flows on the Spanish-Moroccan border.
He is doing so after a historic turnaround in March last year in favour of Morocco in his stance on the Moroccan national cause: Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony de facto administered by Morocco in dispute with the Sahrawi people.
The Spanish prime minister travelled to the Moroccan capital with 12 of his 22 ministers, but not including any from the left-wing partner Unidas-Podemos (GUE-NGL), which rejected this change in the Spanish foreign policy.
The Spanish ministers will hold bilateral meetings on Thursday with their Moroccan counterparts in their respective ministries and will then sign some 20 agreements in a plenary session to be held at the Moroccan Foreign Ministry.
Sánchez will meet with his Moroccan counterpart, Aziz Ajanuch, and plans to meet the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI.
This is the 12th bilateral summit since 1993 when Spain and Morocco began implementing the treaty of friendship that includes an annual bilateral meeting, the last of which was held in 2015.
Two High-Level Meetings (HLMs) planned for 2020 and 2021 were cancelled by Morocco, which, encouraged by US support, maintains a more aggressive policy in the Sahara conflict.
(María Traspaderne | EFE)
Source: euractiv.com
