Nasser Bourita: Morocco and Mauritania Share Excellent Relations At The Political Level
Morocco dispelled doubts surrounding relations with Mauritania, strongly denying what some parties tried to promote about the existence of a diplomatic crisis between the two countries.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Expatriates, Nasser Bourita, said during his meeting, today, Monday, with his Mauritanian counterpart, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, that relations between the two countries have evolved dramatically since the current president took office.
During this high level meeting, Morocco announced its intention to raise the level of economic cooperation between the two countries “to become at the level of political coordination,” as the two ministers discussed the possibility of holding a joint supreme committee and changing representation in the follow-up committee, to become at the level of foreign ministers instead of delegates.
The Moroccan minister also stressed the need to boost sectoral cooperation and mobilize economic actors.
For his part, Mauritanian Foreign Minister Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said that his country’s relations with Morocco in recent years “took a leap forward”, expressing his country’s ambition to advance, especially in the field of trade exchanges.
On a different note, Ould Cheikh expressed Mauritania’s appreciation for what Morocco offers, especially in the field of training Mauritanian executives, as the Kingdom receives hundreds of Mauritanian students annually.
As for cooperation, the Mauritanian minister reaffirmed the existence of a strong political will to develop relations, which must be followed by investments and job opportunities, because the economic cooperation between the two countries “is not at the level of the political ambition that we share today.”
It should be noted that Ould Sheikh Ahmed was scheduled to pay an official visit to Morocco carrying a message from President Mohamed Ould El Ghazouani to His Majesty King Mohammed VI at the end of last March, but it was suddenly announced that the visit would be postponed to a later time without providing explanations, at a time when diplomatic sources denied the existence of a crisis between the two countries.
The postponement of the previous visit of Ould Cheikh to Morocco coincided with Mauritania’s official reception of Bachir Mustapha Sayed, advisor to the leader of the separatist Polisario Front, in charge of political affairs.
Morocco did not comment on that visit, but Sahrawi and Mauritanian activists sent a protest letter to the Mauritanian president, addressing the involvement of Mustapha Sayed in gross human rights violations in Tindouf camps.