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Cairo – King Mohamed VI delivered a speech for the first time from another country, Senegal.
In a new precedent, King Mohamed IV addressed on Sunday the nation from Dakar, Senegal during his few-days visit, on the occasion of the 41st anniversary of Green March.
The speech is the first of its kind to be delivered to the nation outside Morocco, which heralds profound changes in the African diplomatic ties.
Asmaa Hosny, researcher specialized in African affairs at the Ahram Centre for Political and Social Studies (ACPSS), told Morocco World News that Morocco has been increasing efforts to return back to the African Union, to regain the position it had lost over the past decades.
According to Hosny, the withdrawal from the AU at the behest of Morocco 32 years ago has disabled its communication with African countries. Morocco withdrew from the Organization of African Unity (current day African Union) following its decision to accept the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) as full member.
“The efforts to comeback will help Morocco better deliver its concerns and viewpoints especially towards the Sahara issue, and in general better express its interests,” Hosny said.
When the King addressed African leaders in Rwanda in July to rejoin the AU, he stressed that this return to the African Union will not change change its stance on the Western Sahara dispute. The Moroccan monarch intends to use this return as a tool to fight the Polisario, Algeria and their allies from within the organization.
“This does not change the country’s stance towards the Moroccan Sahara,” the king said on Sunday. “On the contrary, it will enable us to defend our legitimate rights and correct the fallacies peddled by opponents of our territorial unity, particularly within the African Union.”
The withdrawal made Morocco the only African country outside the AU.
On the same occasion last year, the king delivered a speech on Africa but from Laayoune, in the Moroccan Sahara. “Today, I am talking to you from the heart of Africa about the Moroccan Sahara,” he said on Sunday.
According to the Moroccan monarch, Morocco’s African policy will not be limited to West and Central Africa. “I will see to it that it acquires a continental dimension and covers the whole of Africa.”
During his stay, the King will meet with Senegalese president Macky Sall to discuss issues of common interest, in addition to the signature of cooperation agreements between the two countries.
The King’s visit to Senegal is part of his efforts to bolster diplomatic partnership on a wider scale of African countries. He also visited Rwanda, Tanzania in October and is scheduled to visit Ethiopia after the United Nations annual conference on climate change (COP).
