Morocco to Cooperate with Mekong River Countries on Water Management
Faithful to its south-south cooperation approach, Morocco signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to cooperate in fields relating to sustainable water-resource development and management, underscored the Eurasia review in an article.
The agreement was signed by Mroocco’s Ambassador to Thailand Abdelilah El Housni and MRC chief executive officer Pham Tuan Phan in the Laotian capital Vientiane on June 29.
“This partnership will foster exchanges and cooperation in water-resource development and management through the sharing of available technical expertise and lessons learned by both parties. Some of the common interests of both parties range from energy to agriculture and food security to water quality,” Eurasia review quoted a statement of the MRC as saying.
The article, by the Jakarta-based veteran journalist Veeramalla Anjaiah, underscored that the agreement to cooperate on water management between Morocco and the MRC is a “first of its kind“ that will help the two parties “ultimately promote and enhance public safety and community welfare by fostering research; promote, encourage, and advance safer, more economical, efficient, and environmentally sound system for water-resource development and management”.
With this agreement, surprisingly, Morocco has become the first Arab or African partner of the MRC, an inter-governmental organization established in 1995 by Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos to jointly manage the shared water resources of Mekong River.
The author of the article deems that Morocco’s quest to broaden its south-south cooperation model to the Mekong region is triggered by the vision of King Mohammed VI who successfully spearheaded the Kingdom’s return to its institutional African family, the African Union.
“Morocco is not focusing only on Africa or the Middle East, it is increasingly looking toward the East, especially Southeast Asia,” the journalist said, noting that Morocco’s growing interest in south east Asia was reflected last year in the signing of a Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
