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Doha – After being selected as the first foreign guest of honor at the Paris Agriculture Show, the North African country has been named the guest of honor for the Paris Book Festival 2025, scheduled for April 11-13 at the Grand Palais.
According to French media, the announcement was made by Culture Minister Rachida Dati during a press conference at the Ministry of Culture.
“I am very happy, obviously, very honored that the Paris Book Festival has chosen Morocco as guest of honor this year,” said Dati, who is of Franco-Moroccan descent.
Dati evoked the strong bilateral ties between the two nations, stating, “You know my attachment to Morocco, obviously. France and Morocco maintain such a strong relationship, and the state visit by the President of the Republic demonstrated this at the end of last October.”
The festival will feature hundreds of Moroccan authors, including Leïla Slimani, Abdellah Taïa, and Souleiman Berrada, who will participate in book signings and roundtable discussions.
Nearly thirty Moroccan publishing houses will be represented at the event, which returns to the Grand Palais for the first time since 1993.
Morocco’s Ambassador to Paris, Samira Sitaïl, called the selection “an honor and a pride,” adding that it brings “the simple and essential joy of seeing Moroccan literature recognized in its most vibrant form.”
The country plans to establish a pavilion to showcase its culture and literary expertise, with aims to position itself as “an African editorial hub,” according to the ambassador.
The cultural collaboration extends beyond the book festival, as Minister Dati is set to visit Morocco from February 17-18.
Her itinerary includes inaugurating the French Cultural Center in Laayoune alongside Moroccan Culture Minister Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid.
The minister will also visit Tarfaya’s Casa del Mar fortress and the Antoine de Saint-Exupéry Aeropostale Museum.
In Dakhla, Dati will tour rock art sites and launch new facilities at the Regional Center of the Higher Institute of Audiovisual and Cinema Professions (ISMAC).
Her visit will conclude in Rabat with the signing of several cultural agreements, including a renewed partnership between the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) and Morocco’s National Institute of Archaeological and Heritage Sciences (INSAP).
These cultural exchanges come amid the flourishing Franco-Moroccan relations, following France’s support for Morocco’s Autonomy Plan in Western Sahara and President Emmanuel Macron’s state visit to Rabat in October 2024.
French Senate President Gérard Larcher is also scheduled to visit Morocco from February 23-26, with stops planned in Rabat and Laayoune.
A report by Le Monde suggests President Macron has invited King Mohammed VI to attend the Paris Agriculture Show, in what would be the monarch’s first official visit to France since 2018.
The 2024 edition of the Paris Book Festival attracted 103,000 visitors at the temporary Grand Palais on the Champ de Mars, with organizers expecting increased attendance at the event’s historical home in 2025.
Read also: Sharjah Named Guest of Honor at 30th Rabat International Book Fair
