Doha – King Mohammed VI may make a long-awaited state visit to France in late 2025 or early 2026, according to a Moroccan diplomatic source. The visit, which has been postponed several times, would mark a new chapter in the strengthening of relations between the two countries.
A series of preparatory meetings have been scheduled ahead of the official state visit, which the King will make at the invitation of French President Emmanuel Macron, a source told AFP.
One of the meetings will reportedly gather the Franco-Moroccan High Joint Commission, co-chaired by the heads of government, and is scheduled for the fall of 2025. Other visits and meetings will also be held to assess the progress of bilateral issues.
Key among these is a meeting of the “joint migration group” on June 25 in Paris and a visit by Moroccan Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit on July 7.
In April, during a visit to Rabat, French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau announced an agreement to “improve cooperation on readmissions”, including the establishment of a “joint group” tasked with “investigating whether the nationality is Moroccan or not” for a number of irregular migrants.
The upcoming royal visit comes after Macron, during his three-day trip to Rabat in October 2024, strongly supported the 2007 Autonomy Plan over the Western Sahara, endorsing Moroccan sovereignty over its southern provinces.
In a July letter to the King, the French president stated that the Moroccan plan “now constitutes the only basis for reaching a just, lasting and negotiated political solution in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions” – a position that the European country has reaffirmed since.
During Macron’s visit, he officially invited King Mohammed VI to make a state visit to France – an invitation the sovereign accepted with the exact date to be agreed through diplomatic channels. Now, according to reports, those dates are materializing.
The two also leaders discussed giving a decisive boost to the excellent multidimensional relations between Morocco and France, to take into account the ambitions of both countries and face international developments and challenges together.
They addressed regional and international issues, agreeing to work together to strengthen Euro-Mediterranean, African and Atlantic cooperation for prosperity and sustainable human development.
The leaders additionally stressed the importance of deeply renewing the partnership between the two shores of the Mediterranean to build a more stable, sustainable, and prosperous future for the entire region.
