Spain, Morocco sign migrant, trade deals
RABAT: The governments of Spain and Morocco signed deals on Thursday on managing migration and boosting Spanish investment in Morocco, among 20 agreements reached at wide-ranging meetings aimed at turning the page on diplomatic tensions linked to the disputed Western Sahara.
Morocco is an ally to Western powers in fighting extremism and important in aiding EU migration policies, and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez applauded what he described as a trust-building step at the signing ceremony in Rabat.
The documents inked on Thursday included an 800-million-euro ($873-million) package to encourage investment by Spanish firms in Morocco, two memorandums on migration and several deals for education and job training. Details were not released.
The meetings, which involved 11 Spanish ministers and 13 from the Moroccan government, also produced an agreement to open customs offices on the border crossings at Spain’s North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which Morocco doesn’t officially recognise as European territories.
This should be a boost to the local economies on both sides of the border.
Sánchez insisted on Thursday on the importance of improved paths of communications between governments with the intention of avoiding “unilateral actions, and never leaving out any topic regardless of its complexity.” “We are establishing the basis for the type of relations between Spain and Morocco for the present and the future... based on mutual trust,” Sánchez said.
Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch praised the “renewed dynamism of our relations.” He also thanked Spain for its support of its proposal for Western Sahara.
One person was notably absent from the Spanish visitors’ agenda in Morocco: King Mohammed VI.
He and Sánchez spoke by telephone on Wednesday about a “new era” in relations, according to the Spanish prime minister’s office.
Sánchez was scheduled to pay a visit on Thursday to the gravesite of the king’s grandfather, Mohammed V Sánchez met with the king last year to put an end to the diplomatic crisis.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the land crossings were porous to flows of contraband goods, and now the goal is for goods to move on trucks and with duties duly paid.
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