The French president will meet with Mohamed VI and will give a speech before the Moroccan Parliament
Oct. 27 () –
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, begins this Monday a state visit to Morocco with which he will turn the page on the distancing of recent years between the two countries and prior to his unwavering support for the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara, which Rabat has turned into its main workhorse at the diplomatic level.
Last July, on the eve of the Feast of the Throne which is celebrated on the 30th, Macron sent a letter to Mohamed VI with the words that the Alawite monarch had been wanting to hear from France for some time: “I consider that the present and future of Western Sahara are part of the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.”
“France intends to act in coherence with this position at a national and international level,” added the French president, because it considers that “autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the framework in which this issue must be resolved.”
Thus, Macron stressed that for his country the autonomy plan formulated in 2007, and which the Polisario Front rejects outright, “constitutes from now on the basis for leading to a political solution that is just, lasting and negotiated in accordance with the resolutions of the Council.” Security Council”.
With this positioning, France was at the level of the United States, which in December 2020, with Donald Trump still in the White House, recognized the Moroccan identity of the Sahara, and was going one step further than Spain, which with a letter from the President of the Government , Pedro Sánchez, in March 2022 stated that the autonomy plan was “the most serious, credible and realistic basis” to resolve the Sahara conflict.
Hence, Mohamed VI was quick to thank Macron for his position and invited him to a state visit, which will finally take place between this Monday and Wednesday and in which he will be accompanied by the first lady, Brigitte Macron.
“I particularly congratulate myself on the clear and strong position that France adopts regarding the Moroccan Sahara,” the monarch said in a statement, celebrating that Paris sees the autonomy plan as “the only basis” to resolve “the regional dispute” over the Sahara. .
SUPPORT FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SAHARA
For now, France does not seem willing to go further and make new gestures that accompany its clear positioning regarding the autonomy plan. Thus, from the Elysée they have ruled out for now the opening of a consulate in Dakhla, as several countries, mainly African, have done in recent times, and as the United States also promised to do at the time but it has not yet materialized.
However, the French Presidency has announced that Macron will reiterate to Mohamed VI what he conveyed to him in his letter, aware of the importance of this matter for Morocco.
They have also recalled that in their visits in recent months to Rabat several ministers have conveyed France’s willingness to “accompany the economic development” of the Southern Provinces, as the former Spanish colony is called in the Alawite kingdom, “in accordance to International Law”, which provides that it be done “for the benefit and with the consent of the population concerned”.
NEW CHAPTER IN THE RELATIONSHIP
The state visit will now allow the two countries to open a “new chapter” in the relationship, highlighted from the Elysée, for which the signing of several agreements is planned that will cover sectors of particular interest for France and Morocco such as energy, water, education or internal security.
French government sources also highlight the desire to further promote the relationship on an economic level, after trade exchanges have doubled in the last ten years.
France is already the first foreign investor in Morocco and is interested in the opportunities that are opening up in the country given its current growth and the planned infrastructure plans, including those related to the 2030 World Cup together with Spain and Morocco.
VISIT AGENDA
Macron will arrive in Rabat this Monday, where he will be received by Mohamed VI, with whom he will then hold a bilateral meeting, at the end of which several agreements will be signed.
Already on Tuesday, the French president will have a busy agenda that includes a meeting with the Moroccan Prime Minister, Aziz Ajanuch, as well as with the presidents of both chambers of Parliament, before whom he is also scheduled to give a speech. In addition, Macron will comply with the tradition of all leaders who visit Rabat of going to the Mausoleum of Mohamed V, the grandfather of the current monarch.
In addition, the French president will close a business meeting and will also maintain contacts with the world of culture, to conclude his visit on Wednesday by participating in a meeting on food security and sustainable agriculture in Africa and a reception for French residents in Morocco.
DISTANCE WITH ALGERIA
The toll that France has had to pay, as happened to Spain at the time, is the distancing with Algeria, although it is true that the relationship had been cooling in recent times with a visit by the Algerian president, Abdelmayid Tebune, to France that did not come to fruition.
And the official visit that Macron had made to Algeria at the end of August 2022 had opened a new stage between the former metropolis and its colony in which both parties wanted to definitively move on to their shared conflictive past, although since then there had been some ups and downs.
As already happened with Spain, where there was no representation between March 2022 and December 2023, Algeria proceeded to withdraw its ambassador from Paris with immediate effect on July 30 and in recent weeks he has even been dismissed, so that he will have to request the pácet for his successor when he decides to return, as already happened in Madrid.
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