Join on WhatsApp
Join on Telegram
Stockholm – Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallström officially announced on Friday that her country has no intention to recognize the “Western Sahara” as a State.
The Swedish Foreign Minister reaffirmed her country’s support to the ongoing UN-led negotiations over the Sahara issue.
“The government does not intend to recognize the Western Sahara and it is position consistent with the assessment of previous governments in this regard,” she said according to Maghreb Arab Press (MAP).
Stockholm’s alleged plans to recognize the self-proclaimed Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) were ruled out, after “the criteria required by the international law to recognize Western Sahara are not fulfilled,” said Wallström.
“The recognition would not be incentive for the process [of negotiations]”, the Scandinavian country’s top diplomat said, pointing out that the “situation in the Western Sahara is different from the situation in other States that Sweden recognized in the past”.
The current Swedish government, led by the Social-Democrats and the Greens, “will rather rely on the evaluation made by the previous governments over this issue”, Wallström added.
The Swedish decision to dismiss the self-proclaimed SADR was in part due to the fact that “Morocco is an influential country in the Arab world” and the desire to “see a rebound in economic relations and trade” between the two countries.
