2023-11-28 21:30:12
Morocco used to be the destination of the first trip abroad for Spanish presidents once they were inaugurated. It was from Felipe González, José María Aznar, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero and Mariano Rajoy. The unwritten tradition left her Pedro Sanchez, who in 2018 visited France after winning the presidency. Nor was it in 2020, after being elected in January, just weeks before the global pandemic of covid-19. In this third legislature, the socialist has chosen a more urgent destiny in the international question: Israel, Palestine and Egypt. There are no planned visits from either the president or the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, as confirmed by Government and diplomatic sources.
This Tuesday, the president spoke by phone with the head of government of the Kingdom of Morocco, Aziz Akhannouch, as announced on X (formerly Twitter). “We agreed on the importance of friendship between Spain and the morocco. That’s why we want to promote The agreed bilateral agenda and explore the new opportunities this renewed relationship offers. We will also promote a closer relationship between Morocco and the European Union”, wrote Sánchez.
It is the first known contact with Rabat after he obtained the investiture thanks to the support of pro-independence groups last November 16.
A legislature marked by Morocco
Spain’s rapprochement with Morocco, combined in the second part of the last legislature, was embodied in a joint roadmap signed at the High Level Meeting in February of this year. Dozens of bilateral agreements in the different areas (economy, migration or culture) of which only the general lines are known and which, for the time being, have not produced the concrete results that were expected.
Pedro Sánchez got Morocco restore diplomatic normality with Spain after a year of retaliation for providing medical care on Spanish soil to Brahim Ghali, the leader of the Sahrawi Polisario Front and Rabat’s enemy. For this, he had to make a turn to the position of neutrality of Spain towards the disputed territory. Sánchez assured the Moroccan monarch Mohamed VI that the plan to give autonomy to the Sahara within the Kingdom was the “most serious, realistic and credible” to resolve the disagreement of half a century.
The customs offices of Ceuta and Melilla are still not operational, despite the commitment made by Minister José Manuel Albares. Nor is it known what will happen to the airspace over the Western Sahara, until now controlled by Spain. Nor with the layout of the waters in front of the Canary Islands, which has disputed areas. In the same way, the meeting that Mohamed VI promised to Pedro Sánchez, after planting him at the High Level Meeting in February, has not taken place.
The European courts hope to confirm very soon the previous decision to suspend the agreement of the UE with Morocco on fishing, from which Spanish boats benefited, because it included capture in Saharan waters without the consent of the Polisario Front.
Impulses to Gibraltar
Spain is also looking to promote another of the agreements frozen by the political cycle, the one relating to Gibraltar. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, he has held his first meeting with his British counterpart, the newly appointed and former Prime Minister David Cameron. There has been no concrete announcement, except for the commitment to continue negotiating. Albares has reiterated, as he said in December last year, that the Spanish proposal is the one that London already has on the table. “The ball is in his court”, said the head of Spanish diplomacy.
The meeting was practically and exclusively focused on the Gibraltar Agreement, according to the minister. “The last aspects that separate us from being able to have a definitive agreement are, for example, the formula for the joint use of the airport”, remarked Albares. “We are so close in these points of view that what remains are specific and specific aspects. Most of the deal is there».
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The United Kingdom and the European Union, representing Spain and with the participation of Gibraltar, have been negotiating for two years how to manage the passage of people and goods through the Separation Barrier, after Brexit.
The maxim is not to enter into matters of sovereignty and try to create a zone of shared prosperity. The minister assures that both have given instructions for the technical teams to resume talks that have been stalled for the past few months. “The decision should not be delayed any longer because it is a situation that is absolutely transitory”, concluded the minister.
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