Moroccan Foreign Minister holds phone talks with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts
Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita had separate phone conversations with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, Sergei Lavrov and Dmytro Kuleba, on Tuesday, March 22, 2022.
This was the first high-level contact between Nasser Bourita and his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts since the outbreak of the armed conflict between Moscow and kyiv on February 24, 2022.
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry made the announcement in two tweets. The first reports the interview with Sergei Lavrov, the second, posted an hour later, announced the telephone conversation with Dmytro Kuleba, with no details on the contents of the talks.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a press release that the exchanges between the two ministers focused in particular on the situation in Ukraine. Sergei Lavrov informed his Moroccan counterpart “of the objectives of the special military operation to protect the republics of Donbass” and gave an update on the progress of negotiations between Moscow and kyiv.
During this phone conversation, the two parties also discussed the development of relations between Morocco and Russia, and agreed to organize in Moscow the meeting of the Intergovernmental Committee of economic, scientific and technical cooperation, stated the press release.
Nasser Bourita and Sergei Lavrov took this opportunity to discuss the progress of the preparations for the 6th ministerial session of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum scheduled in Marrakech, the press release said, adding that the Forum dates have been mutually accepted by the participants.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on its part said in a message posted on its twitter account that talks between Dmytro Kuleba and Nasser Bourita focused on “ways to strengthen bilateral cooperation, including within the UN, to intensify the ‘global humanitarian aid to Ukraine’.
Minister Nasser Bourita expressed his gratitude to Ukraine for the efforts made to successfully evacuate Moroccan students.
