Stakes are high as visits by Spanish, French Presidents color Morocco’s 2023 diplomatic priorities

Morocco is expected to host early this year presidents of France, Spain and the Canary Islands, as the country prepares to hold high-level meetings to discuss the future of its shaky bilateral relations with its traditional partners.

After several postponements since December 2020 due to Covid-19 and a diplomatic drift with Spain, the “Moroccan-Spanish summit” is scheduled to take place at either at the end of this January or the beginning of next February.

The two countries are betting on this high-level meeting to set off the rest of the provisions of the agreement signed between King Mohammed VI and Pedro Sanchez in April of last year.

These provisions especially concern the commercial customs at the Ceuta and Melilla crossings, the joint management of the irregular migration, and the demarcation of the maritime borders that also concern the Canary Islands.

In addition to Sanchez, the head of the regional government of the Canary Islands, Angel Victor Torres, announced, during talks he had a few days ago with the Consul General of Morocco in the archipelago that he plans an official visit to the Kingdom at the beginning of this year.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, is expected to visit Morocco in the first quarter of this year, according to what was confirmed by Catherine Colonna, the French Foreign Minister, on the sidelines of the press conference she held in mid-December with her Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita.

“It is certain that the announcement of high-level official visits often expresses a convergence of opinions on many issues after lengthy preparations through diplomatic channels which allows for decisions to be taken,” Muhammad Boden, head of the Atlas Center for the Analysis of Institutional and Indicators told Hespress AR.

The upcoming visits of both the French President and the Spanish Prime Minister, “reflect the desire to expand the horizons of strategic relations between Morocco and the two European countries, and their recognition of strategic cooperation with the Kingdom of Morocco as the cornerstone in the southwest Mediterranean and Atlantic Africa in issues of migration and combating terrorism, climate, investment and diaspora, as well as developing the historical momentum of bilateral relations and taking the necessary steps to restore relations to the required level.”

The expert in international relations said that “the changing regional architecture, as a result of Morocco’s achievement of diplomatic successes in winning prominent international voices in favor of its sovereignty over its Sahara, and supporting the autonomy initiative and its clear expectations from its traditional partners, overshadow the upcoming dates in Moroccan relations with Spain and France.”

The head of the Atlas Center for the Analysis of Institutional and Indicators considered that the Kingdom of Morocco “possesses the elements required to attract a greater amount of international and regional interest, and to create strategic competition between its traditional and new partners, in light of its regional importance as one of the main diplomatic destinations for the year 2023 to search for solutions to many issues.”