Rabat – Relations between Morocco and South Africa are going to witness a new momentum as part of the new African policy adopted by Morocco over the past years, said Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW).
The media outlet said in an article entitled “Morocco: A quiet breakthrough in the South-African stronghold”, posted Friday on its website, that South Africa, as a regional influential power, has “grown aware” of the critical role of Morocco within the African Union.
“The cultural heritage between Morocco and South Africa should enable the two parties to move forwards,” it said noting that South Africa “owes a lot to Morocco,” as a country that supported the African National Congress and stood by liberation movements during apartheid.
The media giant underlined that Morocco “killed two birds with one stone” during the AU-EU Summit in Abidjan when it re-established ties with South Africa and Angola.
The role of Morocco as a soft power has only grown stronger since the return of the kingdom to the AU after a three-decade boycott, the article added.
This role has solidified through the hundreds of agreements inked by Morocco with various African countries, such as the Nigeria gas pipeline project and the Ethiopian phosphates by-products project.
On Wednesday in Abidjan, King Mohammed VI received President of the Republic of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, on the sidelines of Morocco’s participation in the 5th African Union-European Union Summit.
During this “warm and open meeting,” the two heads of state agreed to work together for a promising future, especially as Morocco and Africa South are two important poles of political stability and economic development, respectively in the extreme north and the extreme south of the continent.
They also agreed to maintain direct contact and to launch a fruitful economic and political partnership in order to build strong, lasting, and stable relations and to go beyond the situation that had characterized bilateral relations for decades, according to Maghreb Arab Press.
In this regard, the Moroccan monarch and President Zuma decided to raise the level of diplomatic representation through the appointment of high-level ambassadors in Rabat and in Pretoria.
