Last day of Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Morocco. The French president is participating this Wednesday, October 30, in a day dedicated to food security and sovereignty, as well as sustainable agriculture, particularly during exchanges with Moroccan students. After three days of diplomatic visit, France and Morocco announced that they wanted to set up a “ strengthened partnership exceptional “.
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With our correspondent in Rabat, François Hume-Ferkatadji
It was the visit of reconciliation and the desire to build, in the words of the French president, a “ new exceptional reinforced partnership “. “ A new book », also hammered Emmanuel Macron.
While diplomatic irritants had multiplied over the last three years, to the point of creating an electric climate between the two countries, the French head of state was welcomed in Rabat with all the pomp and honors of the Moroccan monarchy. King Mohammed VI is invited back to France next year. Warm reunions which were made possible by the clear evolution of the French position on the question of Western Sahara, a disputed territory of which France now recognizes “ Moroccan sovereignty ».
A security alliance
Throughout the trip, the French president strived to emphasize the character “ strategic » of this alliance with the Morocco. “ The first country outside the European Union with which we would engage together so intensely », even launched the French head of state in front of the Moroccan deputies.
A strategic alliance on the security level: Morocco has an imminent role to play in the control of migratory flowsaccording to the French vision. A role to also play in the situation in the Sahel, while the kingdom’s influence is growing in sub-Saharan Africa.
Also readIn the news: the “new Franco-Moroccan chapter”
A partnership above all economic
Strategic, also and above all, on an economic level: the Élysée announces having concluded “ up to ten billion euros » contracts, investment agreements and current or future projects. Forty agreements were signed in all, in the railway sector, water desalination, the supply of a communications satellite or the production of green hydrogen.
France considers Morocco a partner of choice for the next thirty years: a country producing green energy, such as green hydrogen, wind or solar power, capable of being exported to Europe and “decarbody” French industry. It is also a country closer to France, in which it is possible to relocate factories currently located in Asia, and particularly in China. Emmanuel Macron speaks of a “ local supply “.
The sensitive subject of Western Sahara
France is betting on Morocco, to the point of encouraging its companies to invest in Western Saharadespite the wrath of Algeria, and the legal imbroglio. Recently, a decision by the Court of Justice of the European Union revoked the trade agreements between the EU and Morocco, on the grounds that they had been established ” without the consent of the people of Western Sahara “.
A territorial conflict which is therefore far from being resolved, and which could remain a source of difficulties despite the good understanding between the two countries.
Also readIn Algeria, Macron’s remarks on Western Sahara go down badly