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Rabat – The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell will on Thursday pay an official visit to Morocco to discuss Rabat-Brussels bilateral cooperation.
Borrell’s visit to the North African country will take place from January 5-6 as part of the Morocco-EU commitment to deepen their bilateral relations, according to the European External Action Service (EEAS).
“The High Representative will review the current issues and explore specific areas where dialogue and cooperation can be further strengthened,” the EEAS said in a statement. It stressed that the visit’s agenda includes “the exchange around regional and international issues of common interest and particular importance in the current difficult global context.”
During his two-day visit, Borrell is expected to meet with senior Moroccan officials, including Foreign Affairs Minister Nasser Bourita on Thursday.
Page-turning visit?
Bourita and Borrell met in September 2022 in New York, expressing a “reciprocal willingness to deepen dialogue and cooperation” between the EU and Morocco.
That last meeting came on the heels of controversial remarks by Borrell in August 2022 in an interview with RTVE.
Reacting to reports of Spain’s endorsement of Morocco’s stance on the Western Sahara dispute, the top EU diplomat appeared to claim in the interview that Spain’s position remained unchanged.
The Spanish government’s position on the Sahara question “was, and is, that of the EU, that is defending the holding of a consultation so that it is the Sahrawi people who decide how they want their future to be,” Borell claimed.
As the Spanish government had indeed announced supporting Morocco’s stance nearly six months before Borell’s comments, Morocco responded and described the EU’s chief diplomat’s interview as out of the line and “regrettable.”
On August 25, a few days after Borell had made his remarks, Bourita said: “This is a regrettable statement that does ot reflect Spain’s position or Europe’s position” on the Sahara dispute.
The EU has in recent months repeatedly indicated both its commitment to deepen relations with Morocco and its support for the UN-led and compromise-based political process to settle the Sahara question.
Yet it remains to be seen whether Borell’s coming visit to Rabat will meet Morocco’s expectations of securing a more robust, unambiguous European support for the Moroccan position on Western Sahara.
