Pursuant to the High Instructions of His Majesty the King, Supreme Commander and Chief of the General Staff of the Royal Armed Forces, the African Maritime Forces Summit (AMFS-2026) is being held from July 20 to 24 in Rabat.
Organised by the Royal Navy, in partnership with the United States Naval Forces Europe and Africa Component Command (NAVAF) and the United States Marine Forces Europe and Africa Command (MARFORAF), this Summit provides a privileged forum for discussions on maritime security issues and strengthening regional cooperation between African officials and their American counterparts, according to a statement from the General Staff of the Royal Armed Forces.
The work is structured around three major axes, namely maritime security, regional cooperation and technological innovation, the same source specifies.
This leading international event brings together, in addition to African countries, civilian and military officials from the Kingdom of Morocco, the United States of America, as well as representatives from Saudi Arabia, Brazil, the Republic of Korea, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, France, Italy, Jordan, Malta, Norway, Oman, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Turkey.
The opening ceremony was co-chaired, on the Moroccan side, by Rear Admiral Mohamed Tahin, Inspector of the Royal Navy, and Colonel-Major Abdellah Athmani, Chief of the 2nd Bureau of the General Staff of the Royal Armed Forces, and on the American side, by Mr. Ben Ziff, the Chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the United States of America in Rabat, Admiral George Wikoff, Commander of NAVAF, and Major General Daniel L. Shipley, Commander of MARFORAF.
The Summit program includes several conferences and presentations led by experts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Living Abroad, focusing in particular on the Royal Atlantic Initiative, as well as by specialists from the Royal Navy.
The interventions cover a variety of topics, including coordination in the fields of hydrography, oceanography and mapping, the evolution of the standards of the International Hydrographic Organization, the role of Regional Hydrographic Commissions, regional coordination of search and rescue operations at sea, and knowledge and monitoring of the maritime domain.
Alongside this Summit, an exhibition dedicated to maritime security is being organized on July 21, in the form of institutional stands hosted by the Royal Gendarmerie, the Royal Navy, the State Secretariat in charge of Maritime Fisheries, the Directorate of Ports and the Public Maritime Domain, the National Directorate of Meteorology, the National Ports Agency, the National Agency for the Development of Aquaculture, the National Institute of Fisheries Research, the National Center for Maritime Coordination and Rescue, as well as the port complexes of Tangier Med, Nador West Med and Dakhla Atlantic.
