Albares will meet his Moroccan counterpart in person and makes progress in normalizing the relationship with Morocco

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Manuel Albares, has held a telephone meeting this Tuesday with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita and, in it, both have committed to hold a meeting soon in person, in what is a further step in the rapprochement of relations between Spain and Morocco after the Ceuta crisis, according to Foreign sources.

The meeting between Albares and Bourita took place within the framework of the United Nations General Assembly, at the request of the person in charge of Spanish diplomacy, although it has had to be held by phone because the Moroccan has not traveled to New York.

Albares requested this meeting in his eagerness to “consolidate” the relationship between Spain and Morocco of “mutual respect”, and “to take another step towards normalization” after the crisis in Ceuta, according to diplomatic sources.

This was one of the objectives that he set after assuming the Foreign Ministry in the remodeling that the president did Pedro Sanchez in mid-July, replacing Arancha González Laya, who had received harsh criticism from Morocco, for the reception in Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali. What’s more, the former minister and her counterpart did not speak again.

The Moroccan Government ended up recognizing that the crisis that was generated by the massive entry of Moroccans into Ceuta was motivated, among other things, by the Ghali case, and also by Spain’s refusal to change its policy regarding the Sahara and to recognize this as Moroccan. territory, as the United States did with Donald Trump still as president in December 2020.

This crisis, which led to the breakdown of relations with Morocco and the withdrawal of its ambassador in Madrid, was also harshly criticized by the opposition. Specifically, González Laya was charged this Tuesday by the judge investigating the entry into Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front.

Now, Albares works to normalize relations with Morocco, whom he already described as a “great friend” at his inauguration. After his telephone conversation on Tuesday, the next thing will be to meet his Moroccan counterpart in person, to continue rebuilding the “mutually respectful” relationship between Spain and Morocco, according to the sources consulted.

Key gesture

In this context, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs understands as a key gesture the speech made on August 20 by the King Mohamed VI, in which he expressed his intention to inaugurate a “new unpublished stage” in the relationship with Spain, built on the basis of “trust, transparency, mutual respect and honor of commitments”.

Refering to high-level meeting that Morocco and Spain have been pending since December of last year, and that it was postponed due to the pandemic, the diplomatic sources consulted explain that the Government is very interested in that first trip, but above all “in the second, third and fourth”, and they emphasize that the most important thing is to “build a strong relationship.”

In addition, in recent weeks there has been information about a possible return of the Moroccan ambassador, but at the moment this has not materialized.

In any case, the Government considers that there is a “great opportunity” to redefine relations with Morocco after the “positive gestures” that the kingdom has made recently after the crisis experienced in recent months.

This was also revealed by the Executive last week in a written response to a Vox question to which he had access Europa Press. Specifically, the Executive defended that “there is currently a great opportunity to redefine relationships and the pillars on which they are based, taking into account the positive gestures that have taken place recently by the Moroccan authorities “.

In this response, the Executive already assured that it is working “on new and firm relations with Morocco” that allow consolidating “bilateral cooperation”, always in compliance with international agreements and legislation.

Crisis in Ceuta

The relationship with Morocco went through a serious crisis as a result of the arrival in Spain for Ghali humanitarian reasons last April. Rabat expressed his discomfort at not having been informed in advance and, after a few weeks of tension, led to the massive arrival of migrants to Ceuta facilitated by Morocco and the call for consultations from its ambassador in Madrid, Karima Benyaich.

Since then, first with Arancha González Laya Still as Foreign Minister and then with the arrival of Albares, the Government has been insisting on the need for discretion to unblock the crisis, for which Rabat held the former head of diplomacy largely responsible.

On the other hand, in addition to his conversation with the Moroccan minister, Albares will also meet with his Algerian counterpart, Ramtane lamamra, on Wednesday 22 at 19:00 in New York, in his attempt to work “for the rapprochement” between “two great friendly and neighboring countries”, alluding to the dispute that Algeria and Morocco have open between them.

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