Just a year after his last visit to Rabat, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez returned to Morocco on Wednesday this week. This is Sánchez’s fifth official visit to the country since 2018. He was accompanied on Wednesday by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, who said during his last visit in December that the diplomatic relations between Madrdid and Rabat were “at their best.”
In this sense, the Spanish PM’s latest Moroccan visit came in a context in which Madrid looks determined to consolidate its highly strategic and increasingly evolving partnership with its Moroccan neighbor, with the Spanish government having repeatedly assured in recent weeks that Morocco is “a friend and strategic partner of Spain in all areas” and that Sanchez’s visit would help “underlines the deep ties that unite the two countries.”
Also of significance is that the visit came two years after Spain reversed its stance on the Western Sahara dispute, embracing Morocco’s Autonomy Plan as the best route to lasting settlement of the lingering territorial conflict.
In a letter to the King of Morocco on March 14, 2022, Sánchez emphasized that “Spain considers the Moroccan autonomy proposal presented in 2007 to be the most serious, credible and realistic basis for resolving this dispute.”
All these political and diplomatic developments are significant in three respects.
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First, Spain’s constructive stance on the Sahara issue is important. It strengthens the international momentum to end the prolonged dispute, especially now that major international and regional players such as France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and the United States have expressed their support for Morocco’s autonomy plan as the best way to offer the local population a future of peace and prosperity while putting an end to the conflict. The majority of Arab states, as well as numerous African and Caribbean countries, share this view, and many of them have established consulates in southern Morocco.
Second, Spain’s positive stance on the Sahara issue comes from a historically and geographically close actor concerned with regional stability in North Africa and the Mediterranean. As a former colonizer of the disputed region, Spain’s decision not to “sit on the fence” or what King Mohammed VI has called the “gray zone” is a step forward in resolving this half-century dispute, which many commentators have described as a “frozen conflict” or, better, a “polycrisis” that threatens regional security, stability, and prosperity.
Last but not least, Pedro Sánchez’s visit to Rabat could prove mutually beneficial in broader diplomatic and economic terms. Strategically located between Africa, Europe, and the Middle East, Morocco and Spain as partners stand to benefit not only from their combined population of 86 million, but also from increased trade and cooperation between Europe and Africa.
The possibilities are numerous, including the potential to embrace several industries considered strategic for both kingdoms: renewable energy, maritime, construction, trade, agriculture, banking, industry, and the expansion of social, educational, and cultural contacts. Strengthening ties could even fulfill an old wish of both the late King Hassan II and King Juan Carlos I: to build a bridge or tunnel across the Strait of Gibraltar.
