Rabat – China has reaffirmed support for MINURSO, the peacekeeping operation in Morocco’s southern provinces in the Western Sahara region.
The Chinese embassy conveyed the country’s position on Wednesday following a meeting between China’s ambassador to Morocco, Yu Jinsong, and Alexander Ivanki, the head of MINURSO.
On October 31, China abstained from voting on Resolution 2797, the UN Security Council’s latest on the Western Sahara dispute.
The resolution recognizes the Moroccan Autonomy Plan as the genuine political solution to end the decades-long dispute.
Despite China’s abstention from voting on the resolution, Beijing reiterated the importance of Morocco as a strong ally.
Earlier this month, the Chinese ambassador emphasized the “deep-rooted friendship” between the two countries during an event that the Chinese embassy hosted to present insights from the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
“We share a very old and friendly history, and in the next ten years, we must prepare for the second decade of our strategic partnership,” Ambassador Yu told Morocco World News (MWN), adding that several Chinese businesses are strongly interested in investing in Morocco.
Observers have suggested that Beijing’s abstention from voting during the Security Council’s adoption of its latest resolution on the Sahara dispute signaled a shift toward accepting Morocco’s autonomy initiative.
According to Observatorio de la Politica China, Beijing’s decision not to block the resolution already represents a significant departure from its traditional stance.
“Although the principles of China have clearly pointed in favor of a solution through self-determination, in practice, over time, its actions have become more ambitious and pragmatic,” the same source added.
It emphasized that the absence shows that it does not reject the initiative that favors Morocco’s proposal, but reflects a green light.
Morocco has long maintained that the dispute over Western Sahara is the lens through which it views its relations and cooperation with other countries.
Observers believe that this growing Moroccan assertiveness has led many countries, including Morocco’s traditional partners and other major and emerging powers seeking to boost relations with the kingdom, that challenging Morocco’s territorial integrity serves no one’s interests.
For a country like China, which for decades has shown a clear determination to boost its presence across the entire African continent, nurturing relations with Morocco, a continental leader, remains of utmost importance.
