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Rabat – The Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, Jose Manuel Albares, said on Thursday that Spain and Morocco are opening a new phase of bilateral relations “in the best possible way.”
Spanish news agency EFE quoted Albares, emphasizing the importance of ties between Spain and Morocco hours ahead of the arrival of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez. Sanchez will land in Rabat today for a series of meetings with King Mohammed VI and Moroccan senior officials.
“Today, I believe that not only does a crisis end, but a new stage of relations between Spain and Morocco opens in the best possible way,” Albares said.
King Mohammed VI extended an invitation to Sanchez to visit Morocco in a phone conversation last week.
King Mohammed VI will host Iftar (Ramadan evening breakfast) this evening in honor of Sanchez.
The invitation followed Sanchez’s letter to the King of Morocco in March, in which the Spanish official conveyed his country’s official endorsement of the Moroccan Autonomy Plan as the most serious and credible approach to resolving the Western Sahara dispute.
Sanchez said King Mohammed VI is personally announcing the end of the crisis, which is the “deepest” and “one of the longest” both countries have experienced.
Spain and Morocco experience an unprecedented crisis in 2021 after Sanchez’s government hosted Polisario leader Brahim Ghali for hospitalization in April last year.
The Spanish news agency described the Spain and Morocco meeting as a “high-level event,” reflecting the “return of bilateral relations to normality.”
“Collaboration between Spain and Morocco is fundamental,” Albatross stressed, emphasizing Rabat’s pioneering role in irregular migration management and security, and maintaining stability in the region.
Morocco is active with all of its security units in tackling irregular migration.
In 2021, Morocco’s government said Morocco prevented over 14,000 irregular migration attempts since 2017.
Security services also dismantled over 5,000 irregular migration networks and rescued over 80,500 migrants at sea.
With regards to security, Morocco is intensifying efforts to fight terrorism.
The Spanish official state gazette published on Thursday an agreement Morocco and Spain signed in 2019. The agreement outlines cooperation partnerships between Morocco and Spain against terrorism, drug, and human trafficking.
The agreement will enter into force on April 30.
Morocco’s Minister of Interior Abdelouafi Laftit signed the agreement with his Spanish counterpart Fernando Grande-Marlaska in 2019 in Rabat.
