More than one file on the table of King Mohammed VI and Sánchez at the summit meeting
Morocco’s King Mohammed VI and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez are to hold an extraordinary summit in Rabat on Wednesday in a rapprochement that comes eight years after their last summit.
Sanchez will be the guest of Morocco accompanied by a high-level delegation that reflects the importance of the summit in terms of its timing and content, while the anticipated meeting with King Mohammed VI is expected to establish a new and more solid phase of cooperation, while several issues are on the agenda of the two parties, including the Moroccan Sahara issue and economic, security and migration issues, all of which are points already discussed.
Government sources revealed to the Spanish news agency, EFE, that the Spanish Prime Minister is determined to consolidate the path of rapprochement and cooperation with Morocco and strengthen inter-relations to avoid any effect of political crises, said a press report by the Moroccan news website Hespress.
These sources were apparently referring to the campaign against the Kingdom of Morocco by lobbies in the European Parliament seeking to undermine the strategic relations between Morocco and the European Union.
Spain, which will assume the EU rotating presidency in about five months, is expected to play an important role in strengthening Moroccan-EU relations and curbing the anti-Morocco campaigns led by well-known parties, some of which are opponents of the settlement process of the Sahara conflict, in accordance with the autonomy initiative proposed by Rabat since 2007 and which in recent years has gained international and regional support as the best and most realistic solution.
The April meeting between the Moroccan monarch and the Spanish Prime Minister outlined a roadmap for the future of Moroccan-Spanish relations after settling a diplomatic crisis that lasted for several months and ended with Spanish recognition of the Moroccan identity of the Sahara and the autonomy proposal as the sole basis for a settlement.
The summit meeting between King Mohammed VI and Pedro Sánchez on Wednesday will embody the new course on the basis of political realism and common interests, and will strengthen the strategic partnership.
“The bilateral high-level meeting came after a long wait of eight years, with the last bilateral summit taking place in 2015, and therefore there are many issues to consider,” Moroccan historian and director of the Andalusia Center for Studies and Dialog of Civilizations Abdelouahed Akmir was quoted by Hespress as saying.
“The summit is defined by a roadmap that dates back to the April 7 joint statement on the sidelines of the meeting between King Mohammed VI and Pedro Sánchez, which included 16 points to strengthen bilateral relations, ” he said.
He said several points were discussed during the past ten months, including security and immigration issues. Other important issues that need further discussion are those that will be discussed during the summit meeting between the two leaders.
The Moroccan researcher said that “the first file that will be present at the summit is related to the economy due to the value of annual trade, which exceeds 16 billion euros, given that Morocco is the third non-EU trade market for Spain, after the United States and China.”
The discussions are also expected to cover the social file, given that there are one million Moroccan immigrants in Spain, an important community that contributes greatly to the social security and education fund, with 20,000 Moroccan students studying in the Kingdom of Spain.
Abdelouahed Akmir said the security issue will feature prominently in bilateral talks, as both countries need to strengthen security co-operation in view of the threat of terrorism, organized crime and clandestine migration. The two neighbors have been dismantled in co-ordination with several terrorist cells since 2014.
Other issues related to the strengthening of cultural cooperation between the two countries and the Moroccan Sahara are among the most important topics of the summit talks in the light of the diplomatic activity promoted by the Spanish recognition of the Moroccan identity of the Sahara and the autonomy initiative.
The Polisario Front recently held its sixteenth conference to choose a new leadership for the separatist front under the slogan of what it calls intensifying “armed struggle,” a reference to the criminal operations carried out by the front’s gangs.
Under the cover of an Algerian, Brahim Ghali, who has been prosecuted for crimes against humanity, including in Spanish courts, was re-elected at the conference.
It is not clear whether the summit will discuss issues related to the chief secessionist or not, but this is a controversial issue in Spain between those who support prosecutions and those who believe that the Spanish courts do not have jurisdiction.
