Rabat – Sierra Leone reiterated its support for Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over Western Sahara on Friday during the third session of the Morocco-Sierra Leone Joint Commission.
Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita also met his Sierra Leonean counterpart David J. Francis at Dakhla on the sidelines of the meeting, the Moroccan Foreign Affairs Ministry tweeted.
The west African nation also expressed its “full support” of the United Nations’ role in finding a definitive solution to the territorial dispute.
Bourita and Francis signed 13 bilateral agreements on various fields of cooperation, the ministry added.
Bourita with Francis at the event.
The country had previously repeated that position at the UN in 2021, expressing that the Moroccan Autonomy Plan “promotes realism and compromise for a lasting solution to the Sahara issue.”
“Sierra Leone reiterates its support for the Moroccan autonomy initiative since it promotes realism and compromise for a lasting solution to the Sahara issue,” Sierra Leone’s Ambassador to the UN Mangay Sulimani said.
The country has demonstrated its support of Morocco’s position when it opened a consulate in Dakhla in August 2021.
Delegations from both countries met on April 28 in Dakhla to discuss all aspects of their bilateral cooperation including agriculture, trade, and industry.
The joint commission discussed cooperation on various fronts and fields.
Back in 2021, in addition to announcing the plans for a consulate in Dakhla, Francis voiced his country’s support for the Morocco-Nigeria gas pipeline, which is expected to deliver energy to hundreds of millions of people along Africa’s west coast.
The two ministers had also signed a roadmap outlining the framework of multi-sectoral cooperation between Morocco and Sierra Leone.
“This roadmap, which marks the ambition of the two countries to strengthen their bilateral relations, covers the fields of training and education, technical cooperation, economic promotion and investments, security and the exchange of visits,” Morocco’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
