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Join on Telegram Rabat – OkDiario reported on Monday that a Spanish-Moroccan working group has been “discreetly” negotiating the future of the Western Sahara airspace.
“The negotiations are being carried by the Working Group between Morocco and Spain, established for this purpose, which has set up a technical commission to address the details regarding technical cooperation and security in airspace management,” the news outlet said.
Quoting sources from the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the report added that the commission held two meetings to date.
Last year in March, reports indicated that Rabat and Madrid have been negotiating for decades the future of the Western Sahara airspace with the view of handing control of the airspace to Morocco.
This comes after the two countries launched a new roadmap in April 2022 to end a year-long crisis triggered by Polisario leader Brahim Ghali’s hospitalization in Spain in April 2021.
The roadmap includes a “discussion on the management of airspace,” without further details.
According to OkDiario, negotiations are now advancing and is “one of the outstanding issues that Morocco demands from the Sanchew government.”
The airspace that has been under Spanish control has been the topic of discussion between the two countries, including during PM Pedro Sanchez’s previous visit to Rabat in April 2022.
Morocco’s airport authority ONDA has been in charge of coordinating movements with its European counterpart ENAIRE although the control of the airspace has been in the hands of Spain.
This means that ONDA’s center in Casablanca has been giving initial authorization to flights entering and leaving the airport in southern Morocco, including Laayoune, Dakhla, and Es-Smara.
Now, with the two countries’ determination to boost bilateral ties further, reports about a potential official decision on the airspace control transfer have increased.
This comes as Sanchez recently renewed his country’s determination to further advance bilateral relations between the two countries.
Sanchez traveled to Morocco last week, where he met with King Mohammed VI in Rabat.
During his visit, Spain’s PM reiterated the importance of cooperation between the two countries, and renewed Madrid’s support for Morocco’s territorial integrity and sovereignty over its southern provinces in Western Sahara.
Spain endorsed Moocco’s Autonomy Plan as the most serious and credible basis to end the dispute over the Sahara in March 2022.
The announcement ended the Ghali episode and revived the countries’ bilateral ties with the two countries determined to boost cooperation at all levels, including security and trade.
