Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albarez, visits Rabat today, in his first visit to the new legislative body. This will be the first direct meeting between representatives from one side and the other from the Strait of Gibraltar since then. Pedro Sanchez He managed to form a new government. So far, the head of the executive authority has only had a telephone conversation with his Moroccan counterpart, shortly after he was sworn in.
The visit aims to follow up on the road map agreed upon at the end of the last legislative session, which will be marked by the meeting he will hold with his counterpart Nasser Bourita, although he will also hold meetings with Spanish businessmen and aid workers. . In addition, he is scheduled to visit the Spanish school in the city, according to the same sources. It is possible that the minister will visit Mauritania and Senegal after his visit to Rabat.
The Parisian knows Morocco and his counterpart in the country well. The meetings with Bourita were continuous: they met eight times in the last legislative session, making him one of the foreign ministers he met the most. The steps for the relationship between the neighbors were determined at the high-level meeting (RAN) held at the beginning of February. A summit that worked to chart a new course after the diplomatic crisis that separated the two countries due to the hospitalization of Polisario Front leader Ibrahim Ghali in La Rioja in April 2022. The crisis was closed with the letter that Sánchez sent to Mohammed VI, almost a year later, in which he considered the Moroccan autonomy proposal for the Sahara. Western “the most serious, realistic and credible basis for resolving disputes.”
Economic relations
In the RAN, there was no meeting between Sanchez and Mohammed VI, because the king was outside the country, although he invited him to visit Rabat again for a meeting, a meeting whose date has not yet been set. It is not known whether this visit will take place soon and whether the Paris trip will be used to organize it. In previous legislative assemblies, Morocco was the first official trip for Spanish presidents after assuming office. In Sanchez’s case, his first trip was a tour of Israel, Palestine and Egypt.
This new phase between the two countries had an important economic focus. Morocco opened the door for Spanish companies to participate in strategic projects. A month ago, the Spanish company Acciona, along with two Moroccan companies, was awarded the contract to build, manage and maintain a large desalination plant planned for Casablanca. At the RAN, it was also on the table for Spanish companies to participate in the renewal of the Moroccan railway network. Although the main news in the last few months that concerns the two countries is the organization of the FIFA Men’s World Cup, together with Portugal, in 2030.
Among other topics that were agreed upon at the summit, but have not yet been finalized, is the opening of commercial customs in Ceuta and Melilla. This is an issue that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has always insisted must be done in an “organized and gradual” manner.
Cooperation in the field of migration is another major pillar of relations between Madrid and Rabat and one of the recurring topics in the meetings. Although migrant or refugee arrivals to the Ceuta and Melilla peninsulas have decreased significantly in recent months, there has been an increase in the number of arrivals in the Canary Islands this year. According to the Ministry of the Interior, by 2023, more than 34,000 people will have arrived in the archipelago, a number exceeding the number recorded in 2006 during the crisis known as the Caicos. And the deaths haven’t stopped either: since the beginning of the year, 868 people have died or gone missing en route to the Canary Islands, according to the International Organization for Migration.
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