Morocco and Spain are starting the long-anticipated High Level Meeting (HLM) today, a regular gathering that has assembled officials from both sides since the 90s.
Back in 1991, Morocco and Spain signed the Treaty of Friendship, Good Neighborliness and Cooperation, providing a framework for economic collaboration between the two countries, after years of tense relations.
This treaty also obliges the parties to hold high-level meetings on an annual basis.
Typically, the meetings include high ranking officials from both governments, in addition to the Spanish head of Government and his Moroccan counterpart.
Morocco and Spain held their most recent HLM back in 2015 in Madrid, where this 11th meeting resulted in the signing of a 2015-2017 joint action plan for cooperation, as both governments celebrated “the exemplary relationship between both countries.”
On the Western Sahara issue, Spain was limited to welcoming Morocco’s “serious and credible” efforts to reach a solution.
Since then, there have been two planned HLMs, in 2020 and 2021, both canceled at the initiative of Morocco.
However, much has changed in the last seven years. Most notably a year-long diplomatic crisis that amounted to Spain finally taking a clear and supportive stance for Morocco’s Autonomy proposal for the Sahara.
Morocco and Spain inaugurated a new stage in their shared history of cooperation, now agreeing on migration, common geopolitical, economic and security interests.
Last Monday, Spanish FM Jose Manuel Albares said at a symposium that the HLM “is the right time to strengthen our mutual foundations for a much stronger bilateral relationship.”
Morocco and Spain should finalize about 20 bilateral agreements out of the hundred or so on the table.
Many sectors will be addressed including tourism, business, education, energy and migration.
Head of the Moroccan Government Aziz Akhannouch, his Spanish counterpart Pedro Sanchez, as well as the CGEM, CEOE and the Moroccan-Spanish Economic Council believe, and even affirm, that “cooperation between Spanish and Moroccan companies and the energy transition will be at the heart of this meeting.”
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