Rabat – King Mohammed VI will visit China on the 11th and 12th of May to meet with President Xi Jinping to sign a series of strategic cooperation agreements, according to a senior government official quoted by Hespress.
The king had hinted at the visit during his speech last week at the joint Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit, where he said he planned to “diversify” his political ties with Asian countries, such as China and India.
Strengthening Morocco’s alliance with China has been on the monarch’s agenda for a few months now, but an organized visit for the national leader has been postponed a couple of times for non-political reasons.
Most recently, the king caught a severe cold before a planned trip to the People’s Republic in November, causing the endeavor to be cancelled.
The state-run news agency of China recently revealed that the communist country’s leaders will present the king with the terms of a free trade agreement between the two developing countries.
The agency added that China seeks to showcase its products, services and capabilities in Rabat by developing a tripartite partnership between Morocco, China and the rest of Africa.
Several Indian news outlets reported that Hamid Ansari, the vice-president of India, was set to visit Morocco and Senegal in mid-April as part of his government’s initiative to ramp up alliances with African countries.
It is unclear from a recent scan of international media if the visit materialized and what the trip achieved, if it did occur.
