The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, said Wednesday in Valencia that “Morocco is not just a neighbour, but a strategic partner” for his country. .
”Morocco is a strategic partner, not just a neighbour. You have to have the best relations with the neighbours, in this case Morocco, and that’s what Spain has managed to do.underlined Albares during a meeting organized by the newspaper ”Las Provincias”.
Last February, Spain and Morocco held the first High Level Meeting (HLM) in Morocco for 11 years, indicated the head of Spanish diplomacy, noting that this meeting brought together the largest number of ministers of the two governments and was crowned by the signing of the greatest number of agreements, 20 in all.
In this sense, Albares stressed the importance of cooperation between the two countries in various fields.
”If we take chapters as important as trade, the two countries have reached the record figure of 20 billion euros in trade, 11,000 Spanish companies export their products to Morocco and 1,100 companies are already established in Morocco”he argued.
Regarding the common management of the phenomenon of irregular migration, the Spanish Minister indicated that ”all European routes are increasing exponentially, with +305% via Italy and +95% via Greece, while illegal migratory flows to the Canary Islands and Andalusia recorded an average drop of 75%”.
On the basis of the new roadmap, adopted on April 7, 2022, on the occasion of the visit of the President of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, to Morocco, at the invitation of King Mohammed VI, the two countries have committed , inter alia, to deal with subjects of common interest in a “spirit of trust and consultation”while reactivating the working groups created between the two countries to relaunch multi-sector bilateral cooperation.
In the Joint Declaration that sanctioned the work of their 12th High-Level Meeting, held on February 1 and 2 in Rabat, Morocco and Spain expressed their commitment to perpetuating the excellent relations that have always linked them and reaffirm their desire to constantly enrich them.
The two parties signed, on this occasion, several cooperation agreements relating to various fields, including the management of migration, tourism, infrastructure, water resources, the environment, agriculture, vocational training, social security, transport, health security and research and development.