Rabat – The Morocco-Egypt Forum participants condemned Tunisia’s “hostile move” in welcoming the Polisario leader at the 8th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), calling it “a cardinal sin that undermines the Arab constants.”
They said in a statement: “We learned with great displeasure of the Tunisian presidency’s actions on the occasion of the TICAD in Tunis, including the official welcome that the Tunisian President Kais Saied reserved for the leader of a separatist movement, as well as the placement of the flag of a puppet republic in the reception room.”
While invites to the TICAD are only for countries recognized by Japan, Tunisia invited the Polisario separatist leader to the conference, held on August 27-28.
Morocco responded by boycotting the summit and condemning Tunisia’s abrupt abandonment of its decades-old neutrality in the Western Sahara dispute.
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“The Tunisian president has solemnly proclaimed the exit of his country from the zone of neutrality vis-a-vis the artificial conflict around the Moroccan Sahara,” said the forum’s statement, adding that “the territorial integrity of the Kingdom of Morocco is a red line.”
It concluded: “The reception reserved by Tunisia to the leader of this horde of separatists will only aggravate relations between the countries of the Greater Maghreb in these difficult times when wise nations are working to consolidate the policies of good neighborliness.”
Held on August 27 in Dakhla, the Morocco-Egypt Forum is the first strategic forum between the two countries.
For both countries, the meeting provides an opportunity to examine and strengthen their strategic relations, with particular emphasis on the roles that the two countries can play at the regional level.
In particular, the first iteration of the strategic bilateral forum addressed issues concerning Morocco’s territorial integrity, as well as developments in North Africa and the Sahel.
