Agadir – Morocco and the Democratic Republic of Congo have pledged to further their diplomatic relations, with the two countries also discussing Africa’s security challenges in the coming years.
Moroccan Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita met in Rabat on February 1 with Francois Beya, Special Security Adviser to DRC’s President Felix Tshisekedi.
The two officials discussed strengthening bilateral relations between their two countries. They also talked about security challenges on the African continent, mentioning the rising threat of terrorism and the need for a coordinated continental response.
The meeting was a follow-up to a message King Mohammed VI recently sent Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi. In a December 2020 letter, the Moroccan King thanked President Tshisekedi for his country’s support of Morocco on the Western Sahara question.
Bourita’s meeting with the Congolese FM also marked the beginning of the Congolese President Tshisekedi’s term as the president of the African Union (AU).
Following the opening of a DRC consulate in Dakhla on December 19, 2020, Bourita remarked that the two countries have “solid and secular” relations.
Read Also: DRC Stands With Morocco Regarding Western Sahara Tensions
The two countries have always stood beside each other in difficult times, Bourita said. Morocco’s first participation in a peacekeeping operation in the DRC was in 1960. Today, more than 900 Moroccan Blue Helmets are mobilized in the DRC for peacekeeping operations.
Last year, 60 troops from Morocco’s peacekeeping mission were repatriated home from the DRC after the country introduced its COVID-19 lockdown.
Morocco and DRC will hold a joint committee in May or June this year in the Congolese capital city of Kinshasa.
The two countries will also co-organize a business forum to cement their trade and business relations, according to a joint statement.
