Morocco has called for building a Russian-African partnership focused on food and energy security, industrialization, and technology transfer in order to see the shared commitments turning into concrete actions responding to the priorities of the African continent.
Addressing on Thursday the third Russia-Africa Summit convening in Moscow, Head of Govt. Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, who is representing King Mohammed VI in this summit, stressed the need of advancing Russian-African partnership from planning to the execution phase.
The action plans adopted in Sochi and St. Petersburg laid the foundations of this cooperation, she added, stressing that time has come to see these commitments yielding tangibles results across the African continent.
King Mohammed VI has always placed Africa at the top of Morocco’s foreign policy priorities, said Mrs. El Mansouri, citing in this regard the royal initiatives launched for Africa. These include the Atlantic African States Initiative, the Royal initiative offering Sahel countries access to the Atlantic Ocean and the Nigeria-Morocco African-Atlantic Gas Pipeline, which anchors integration, co-development, and stability across the entire West African region.
King Mohammed VI remains confident that Africa needs all its international partners, said Head of the Moroccan Govt., noting that each cooperation model brings its own added value, provided it fits into an overall complementarity, based on mutual respect between the continent’s countries and their partners.
Morocco remains committed to Russian-African partnership and reiterates its determination, through this Summit, to help launch concrete and innovative venues of cooperation, said Mrs. El Mansouri, affirming
that not only Africa needs the rest of the world, but the rest of the world also has a growing need for Africa.
Africa draws strength from its natural resources, its human capital, its geographical positioning, as well as its historical, cultural, and political wealth, she said, noting trade between Russia and the African continent reached $27.7 billion in 2025.
On Morocco-Russia relationship, the Head of Govt. said ties between the two countries are based on centuries-old friendly relations that have gained momentum since the conclusion of the Strategic Partnership in 2002, followed by the Deepened Strategic Partnership during the Royal Visit to Moscow in 2016.
Morocco ranks among Russia’s top three economic partners in Africa. Trade exchanges between Morocco and Russia reached $630 million in 2025. Moroccan exports to this country increased by 18%. Furthermore, over 7,000 Moroccan students pursued their studies in Russia in 2024-2025.
Despite a complex geopolitical context, the two countries maintained trading at appreciable levels, said El Mansouri, stressing the need to explore
cooperation opportunities in the fields of energy, science, and technology.
She also said that the Morocco-Russia shared desire to deepen political dialogue and explore new horizons of cooperation was demonstrated by the recent creation of a Working Committee between the two Ministries of Foreign Affairs.
