The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, held a meeting in Paris this Friday with his Moroccan counterpart, Naser Burita, to “advance” with a view to the high-level meeting, scheduled a priori for the beginning of 2023.
“Good meeting with Naser Burita to advance in the development of the roadmap and the High Level Meeting (RAN)”, said Albares in a brief message on his account on the social network Twitter, a social network in which his counterpart Moroccan has also confirmed the appointment. The meeting took place at the Spanish Embassy in Paris and lasted for an hour, diplomatic sources have specified.
In addition to reviewing all the aspects of the road map that Spain and Morocco set out in the declaration of April 7 following the meeting between the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and King Mohamed VI, the two ministers also discussed issues regarding Rabat’s relationship with the EU with a view to the rotating Presidency that Spain will assume in the second half of 2023.
This Friday in Paris, where both attend the Forum for Peace, has been the fourth bilateral meeting between the ministers since the beginning of the new phase of relations as a result of the support given by Sánchez to the Moroccan autonomy plan for the Sahara in his letter to Mohamed VI in March.
The April joint declaration stipulated that the RAN should be held before the end of the year, but Burita himself indicated in October that the summit will be held in early 2023, although he recognized the importance of holding it in the new stage that Bilateral relations now live.
The summit was scheduled for December 2020 but was initially postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and the diplomatic crisis as a result of the reception in Spain of the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, and due to the position regarding Western Sahara, it was postponed sine die. Spain and Morocco have not held a RAN since 2015.
Within the framework of the roadmap, one of the pending issues that has aroused the most interest is the reopening of the customs office in Melilla and the creation of a new one in Ceuta. In this regard, after the previous one held in New York, Albares and Burita announced that they would open in January, without the sources having confirmed whether this matter has been specifically addressed.
The two ministers will foreseeably have the opportunity to see each other again on November 24 in Barcelona, ??where the ministerial meeting of the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) will take place, as well as that of the EU and the Southern Neighborhood, of which Morocco is a part . Last year, in the midst of a diplomatic crisis, Burita did not attend this forum.
