Morocco urges an end to useless debates on Sahara issue within African Union

Morocco reiterated its calls for freeing the African Union of the useless debates that are disconnected from the reality in the Sahara.

Speaking at a joint press conference Tuesday in Rabat with Rwandan Foreign Minister Richard Sezibera, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said the African Union should be cleaned of debates on the Sahara issue that he described as “sterile, useless and disconnected from reality.”

He praised the Rwandan role within the African Union as “constructive” in advocating a realistic solution to dealing with the Sahara issue.

Sezibera said his country backs Morocco’s efforts to reach a fair solution to the regional dispute over the Sahara, adding that the two countries also work together to push forward the AU’s reform agenda.

Rabat also hosted Tuesday the first session of the Moroccan-Rwandan High Joint Committee, meant to open new horizons for the development of bilateral cooperation, through the involvement of the private and public sectors and to consecrate a mutually beneficial partnership in the frame of South-South cooperation.

During this session, Morocco and Rwanda signed twelve cooperation agreements covering the areas of trade, industry, environment and sustainable development, mutual legal assistance and judicial extradition, tourism and the training of young diplomats.

The two countries also signed an agreement aimed at creating a framework for cooperation in the field of education and the granting of scholarships to Rwandan students through the Moroccan Agency for International Cooperation (AMCI).

King Mohammed VI visited Rwanda in October 2016 following a visit by President Paul Kagame to Morocco in July the same year. The two countries signed 19 agreements during the royal visit setting the stage for cooperation in vital sectors such as agriculture, housing, vocational training, finances, taxes, banking, new technologies, air transport, tourism and renewable energies.