Morocco’s Africa Foreign Policy, Bridging Continent’s East and West

A new momentum was added to Morocco’s Africa foreign policy with the recent eastern African tour undertaken by King Mohammed VI to Rwanda and Tanzania. This impetus will be strengthened with another Royal visit to two longstanding friends of Morocco in western Africa, namely Gabon and Senegal.

The news was related by the Arabic speaking daily, Akhbar Al Yaoum, which said that the two aircrafts used during the Royal tour in eastern Africa have landed in Libereville.

The visit to Gabon and Senegal takes place ahead of Africa Action Summit, scheduled on November 16 in Marrakech on the sidelines of the Climate Summit COP22.

The African summit puts Morocco at the forefront of climate action in the African continent, which is facing adverse effects of climate change. The organization of this continental event also evidences Morocco’s strong will to add momentum to common African action.

Several African leaders will attend the summit including the presidents of Nigeria, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Gambia, Equatorial Guinea, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Chad, Benin, Djibouti, Gabon, Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe, Liberia and the head of the Libyan Presidential Council, Moroccan local media said.

Relatedly, the Huffington post Maghreb said it learnt from an authoritative source that Egypt’s Sisi will attend the Africa Action Summit, which will represent the first official visit of the Egyptian President since he took office.

South Africa’s Jacob Zuma is yet to confirm his participation in the continental environmental summit in the coming days.

The continental summit will also bring together several international players including the US, France, India, China, Japan and Russia in addition to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the EU, the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the World Bank.

The organization of this high-level African summit is part of Morocco’s endeavor to regain its natural place in the African institutional family with the deposit of an official request to join the African Union.