Africa is in need, now more than ever, of peace and development to emerge strong and advance its economic growth agenda, Morocco’s ambassador to South Africa, Youssef Amrani, said Thursday.
“However, for peace and progress to prevail, we must willingly and unwaveringly choose unity over division, value and embrace political debate over other forms of political behavior,” Amrani said in an op-ed published in the South African broadsheet newspaper The Star on the occasion of Africa Day.
The day, which commemorates the founding of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the forerunner of the African Union (AU), was also marked by the production of a video by the Kingdom’s embassy in Pretoria.
Amrani added that Africa is considered by Morocco as an absolute priority, a place where our diplomacy can be strategically anchored, noting that in line with the enlightened vision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, the Kingdom of Morocco’s diplomatic aspirations towards the continent, its institutions and its people, should be directed towards the creation of an “Emerging Africa”.
In this regard, he affirmed that, from a geopolitical point of view, Africa has the capacity to play a role in stabilizing the evolving global imbalance, adding that integration, coherence and shared vision are the three key elements necessary for the functioning of any geopolitical entity.
In the same vein, Amrani recalled that quite sophisticated and effective integration policies exist on the continent, citing regional organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which have achieved uniformity and homogeneity in their diplomatic objectives.
Noting that Africa must hold a serious debate on its integration capacity, he affirmed that “this is the core of Morocco’s proactive diplomacy, which is applied within the AU and in all our cooperative relations with African allies and sister nations.”
Referring to the African Continental Free Trade Area (Zlecaf), the Moroccan diplomat said that far from being an end in itself, it heralds the beginning of a broader collective strategy and a new approach to co-development that is coordinated, successful and open to all African citizens.
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