Albares: “Morocco is not a simple neighbor, but a strategic partner for Spain”
Hibapress
The Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, affirmed, Wednesday in Valencia, that “Morocco is not a simple neighbor, but a strategic partner” for his country .
“Morocco is a strategic partner, not a simple neighbor. We must have the best relations with our neighbors, in this case Morocco, and this is what Spain has succeeded in doing,” Mr. Albares underlined 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 from both governments and was crowned by the signing of the largest number of agreements, 20 in total.
In this sense, Mr. Albares emphasized the importance of cooperation between the two countries in various areas.
“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 said. he argued.
Regarding the joint 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 flows illegal migration to the Canary Islands and Andalusia recorded an average drop of 75%.
On the basis of the new road map, 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 are committed , among other things, to address 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 which sanctioned the work of their 12th High-level Meeting, held on February 1 and 2 in Rabat, Morocco and Spain expressed their commitment to perpetuate the relations of excellence which have always linked them and reaffirm their desire to continually enrich them.
The two parties signed, on this occasion, several cooperation agreements covering different areas, including migration management, tourism, infrastructure, water resources, environment, agriculture, professional training, social security, transport, health security and research and development.
