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Marrakech – Belgium pledged Monday to extend its consular services and channel economic initiatives into Morocco’s southern provinces in the Western Sahara, reinforcing the groundswell of European alignment behind Rabat’s sovereignty over the territory.
Belgian Vice-Premier and Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot delivered the commitment after talks with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, in Rabat.
Prévot affirmed that Belgium’s consulate general in Rabat exercises full authority across all of Morocco without regional carve-outs, encompassing the Sahara.
He disclosed that Belgium’s ambassador to Rabat will travel to the region to spearhead Belgian business delegations, orchestrate economic fairs, and coordinate a joint mission involving Belgium’s three regional trade agencies.
Prévot reiterated Belgium’s endorsement of Morocco’s Autonomy Plan, hailing it as the most adequate, serious, credible, and realistic foundation for a just and enduring political settlement. He added that Brussels intends to operationalize this position across both diplomatic and economic dimensions.
The stance stems from a political accord inked between the two countries in Brussels on October 23, 2025, during which Belgium irrevocably vowed to act “from now on, on diplomatic and economic levels, in line with this position.”
Morocco’s top diplomat urged Belgian investors at the time to explore the vast opportunities available in the southern provinces, noting that Belgium ranks 13th among Morocco’s trade partners and 17th among its investors.
Bourita pointed to renewable energy, infrastructure, industry, and green hydrogen as particularly promising avenues for bilateral engagement, and framed the southern provinces as a gateway for Belgium to deepen its trade ties with West and Central Africa.
During a subsequent address before Belgium’s parliamentary foreign affairs committee in December, Prévot unveiled preparations for a governmental visit to Morocco in spring 2026 and signaled aspirations to stage a state visit featuring royal-level representation during the current legislative term.
Belgium’s announcement landed just one day after Finland buttressed its own backing for the Moroccan autonomy framework. Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, on an official visit to Rabat Sunday, declared that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty could constitute one of the most achievable solutions.
Both Helsinki and Rabat hailed UN Security Council Resolution 2797, adopted in October 2025, which enshrined the Autonomy Plan as the bedrock for negotiations and confined the diplomatic scope strictly to questions of implementation.
Read also: Belgium Reaffirms Firm Support for Morocco’s Sovereignty Over Western Sahara
The successive European declarations reflect a sweeping continental realignment. On January 29, the European Union forged a unified position during the 15th EU-Morocco Association Council in Brussels, where all 27 member states concurred that genuine autonomy represents one of the most realistic solutions. EU High Representative Kaja Kallas and Bourita signed a joint communiqué crystallizing the bloc’s recalibrated stance.
Belgium also follows France, which in May 2025 inaugurated a TLS visa services center in Laayoune, the largest city in the Sahara.
The diplomatic surge has yielded tangible economic dividends. France, the United Arab Emirates, and the United States have all funneled investments into the Sahara provinces and galvanized their companies to establish footholds in the region, particularly after Resolution 2797 definitively narrowed the dispute to the modalities of implementing autonomy rather than relitigating the territory’s standing.
Prévot stressed that Belgium’s partnership with Morocco transcends the Sahara dossier. He cited deepening cooperation on security, judicial modernization, migration, organized crime, and money laundering as cornerstones of the bilateral relationship, anchored in decades of economic, human, and cultural bonds binding the two kingdoms.
