On Thursday morning, Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch held bilateral talks with his French counterpart, Sebastien Lecornu , who is on a working visit to Morocco accompanied by a ministerial delegation, to participate in the fifteenth session of the high-level Moroccan-French meeting.
A statement from the Moroccan government, a copy of which was received by Al-Quds Al-Arabi, indicated that Akhannouch stressed that holding this session is of particular importance in light of the new dynamic of Moroccan-French relations, which was launched by a joint initiative of the Moroccan monarch, Mohammed VI, and the French President, Emmanuel Macron, on the occasion of the latter’s state visit to Morocco in October 2014, culminating in the signing of the declaration relating to the “exceptional and strong partnership.”
The Moroccan Prime Minister affirmed that the fifteenth session of the high-level Moroccan-French meeting constitutes a governmental mechanism for monitoring and leading the implementation of the “exceptional and strong partnership,” and for assessing the progress made in implementing the commitments arising from it, and will be an opportunity to identify new structuring projects that will outline the prospects for the next stage of the distinguished bilateral relations.
The talks were attended on the Moroccan side by Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and Morocco’s Ambassador to Paris, Samira Sitail, and on the French side by French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot and French Ambassador to Rabat Philippe Lalliot.
Observers note that the fifteenth session of the high-level Moroccan-French meeting is being held in a context characterized by an unprecedented strengthening of political relations between Morocco and France, in light of the historical development of the French position on the Western Sahara issue, where France adopted the “autonomy” initiative within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty as a solution to the conflict with the “Polisario” that has lasted for half a century.
French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu arrived Wednesday evening at Rabat-Salé Airport, as part of his official visit to Morocco to chair the 15th session of the Moroccan-French High-Level Meeting.
Locorno described his visit to Morocco as “important,” explaining that it was “an opportunity to strengthen our cooperation on all the important issues of these relations.
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