Rabat – The Royal Moroccan Navy engaged in a joint exercise with their Pakistani counterpart on the 26th November.
Various maneuvers were practiced between Pakistani ship ALAMGIR 260 and the Royal Moroccan Navy’s MRM Allal Ben Abdellah 615 in the Atlantic Ocean, in a bid to improve interoperability and cooperation between the two navies.
The exercises are a reaffirmation of a commitment from Pakistan to establish cooperation with “friendly” navies around the world, according to a release detailing the operations.
“Naval diplomacy in the form of goodwill visits and exercises remains a focus of activities planned around the year,” the release added.
The two countries performed similar exercises back in August near the straits of Gibraltar.
Pakistan’s PNS Zulfiqar and Morocco’s RMNS Sultan Moulay Ismael participated in the August exercises.
PNS ALAMGIR resumed its usual activities in the African region after its joint exercises with the Moroccan navy.
Recent years have seen a rise in the bilateral cooperation activities between Morocco and Pakistan, including their navies.
In 2017, Morocco participated in a multinational joint exercise that was held in Karachi, Pakistan.
Last year, Morocco’s embassy in Islamabad said that both countries are looking to strengthen their ties and improve cooperation, holding high level meetings to plan potential cooperative plans in various fields, including defense and politics.
Morocco is also seeking to boost its trade with Pakistan, as the latter has become a major player in Morocco’s fertilizer industry, according to official data.
Trade between the two has also been shown to have tripled between 2007 and 2018.
More recently, in October, the two countries held a two-week joint counterterrorism training event in Pakistan.
The event was the first of its kind to be held between the two countries, as both countries work to contain terrorism threats in their respective regions.
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