FM in Washington D.C. to strengthen the strategic partnership between Morocco and the United States

Last updated Mar 20, 2023

Washington D.C. – Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Nasser Bourita, is currently on a working visit to Washington D.C. on Monday.

The visit of Morocco’s top diplomat is part of continuing conversations aimed at strengthening Morocco-US strategic cooperation and consulting on numerous regional and international concerns.

During his visit, Bourita will meet with the White House and State Department officials, including the chief of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken. The cooperation between Rabat and Washington D.C. has evolved greatly in recent years, thanks to the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI and US President Joe Biden.

During the Minister’s visit, there will be a chance to strengthen the two countries’ long-standing bilateral strategic collaboration in a number of areas and to talk about global and regional problems of shared importance, notably in the Middle East and Africa.

This particular visit reaffirms the momentum of frequent interactions between Morocco and the US, which have significantly increased over the past two years with the visits to the Kingdom of numerous important US officials.

At the political dialogue level, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s trip to Rabat in March 2022 had a lasting impression on the previous year. The US Secretary of State declared at the time, “We support His Majesty the King’s ambitious reform initiative to enhance Moroccan institutions.

Additionally, Blinken’s assistant Wendy Sherman paid a visit in the same month of last year, followed by Victoria Nuland, the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, in May 2022, and more recently, Michèle Sisson, the Assistant Under-Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs, in January.

A significant US economic mission was led by the CEO of the Millennium Challenge Corporation in July 2022, and he also paid two visits to Morocco last week. Brett McGurk, the MENA Coordinator of the White House National Security Council, went to Rabat for high-level discussions in December 2022.

The security consultations became a part of the same dynamic of major reinforcement, particularly as a result of General Mark Milley, Chief of Staff of the American Forces, making his first visit to Morocco in February.

The visits of Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence, and Christopher Wray, Director of the FBI, in 2022 helped to broaden and strengthen the two nations’ expanding multifaceted security collaboration.

As a result of the Abraham Accords Parliamentary Group’s visit to the US Senate in January, a delegation of powerful senators led by the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s committee, and the Hispanic Parliamentary Group’s visit to the US House of Representatives in March, communication with the US Congress has also been intense, particularly over the past three months.

It was their first trip to the Southern Provinces since the United States recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara in December 2020. They visited Dakhla.