Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, reaffirmed, on Monday in Madrid, the need to have good relations with Morocco, assuring that the Kingdom remains “the first priority”. of Spain in matters of foreign policy.
“All the presidents and foreign ministers of our democracy have defined Morocco as the number one priority of Spain’s foreign policy,” Albares said at a forum organized by the Llorente consultancy. y Cuenca, on the occasion of the upcoming Spanish Presidency of the European Union.
“Not working to have a good relationship with Morocco is very damaging for the Spanish people,” insisted the head of Spanish diplomacy.
Today, underlined Mr. Albares, the two countries have laid the foundations for “a new relationship based on mutual respect and the non-recourse to unilateral acts”, specifying that the first results of this new dynamic are ”already visible”.
In this sense, the Minister emphasized the decline in irregular arrivals of immigrants on the Spanish coasts, which, according to him, has made it possible to avoid “thousands of deaths” in the Mediterranean and in the Atlantic, and on increasing trade between the two countries.
“The results are there and we see that we are managing things much better than a year and a half ago,” concluded Mr. Albares.
Morocco and Spain held, on 1 and 2 February in Rabat, their 12th High Level Meeting, which was sanctioned by a Joint Declaration, in which the two parties express their commitment to perpetuating the relations of excellence which have always linked and reaffirm their desire to enrich them permanently.
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.