Morocco, which has placed a lot of emphasis on the Atlantic area, took part in a meeting organized by the United States devoted to the development of this area. Spain was also present there.
Washington hosted, by videoconference, the second meeting of senior representatives of the 34 member states of the Atlantic Partnership, launched in September 2023 in New York. Morocco, highly interested in this area and founding member of the initiative, was present. The kingdom, alongside Spain and Angola, leads the group dedicated to marine spatial planning, the US State Department said in a press release.
Members also decided to organize various workshops in 2024 on issues of mutual interest such as: plastic pollution; food and nutritional security; and innovative financing tools for the conservation and sustainable use of the marine resources of the Atlantic Ocean, adds the same source.
Launched in September 2023, the Atlantic Partnership aims to open a new chapter in regional cooperation, forging closer ties between Atlantic countries on four continents. Its objective is twofold: to enable Atlantic countries to extend their cooperation on a series of common objectives and to defend a set of common principles for Atlantic cooperation. The World Bank estimates the contribution of the Atlantic Ocean to the global economy at $1.5 trillion per year and predicts that this figure will double by 2030.
Morocco is already working on the African coast of the Atlantic
Alongside the American initiative, Morocco aims to structure the African Atlantic space. “Our wish is that the Atlantic coast becomes a high place of human communion, a pole of economic integration, a center of continental and international influence,” underlined King Mohammed VI in his speech of November 6, 2023. And to announce that “Morocco has taken the initiative to create an institutional framework bringing together the 23 Atlantic African States with a view to consolidating security, stability and shared prosperity in the region”.
Since then, Morocco has gained support for its continental project. This is evidenced by the Declaration published on Wednesday February 21, at the end of the visit of the head of the Spanish government, Pedro Sanchez, to Rabat. “The President of the Spanish Government welcomed and expressed Spain’s interest in the strategic initiatives launched by His Majesty the King, may God help him, in particular the Initiative of African countries bordering the Atlantic, the Initiative Royal to promote access of the Sahel countries to the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the African-Atlantic Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline,” we read in the text.
As a reminder, the countries on the African Atlantic coast met three times at the level of their foreign ministers: June 8, 2022 in Rabat, September 23, 2022 in New York on the sidelines of the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly and July 12, 2023 in Rabat.
Morocco hosted, in August 2009, the first meeting of Atlantic African countries, with the participation of 22 African states. An action plan was adopted with the creation of a permanent secretariat, based in Rabat. However, this major project could not see the light of day. The international context was hardly conducive to launching such an initiative.
Since then, the situation has evolved. In January, Morocco made its scientific boat Al Hassane Al Marrakchi from the National Institute of Research and Fisheries of Morocco available to Liberia to carry out mapping of the fish stocks and seabed of this African country. Ivory Coast and Guinea have also requested to benefit from Moroccan expertise in this sector. The three African countries are also members of the Atlantic Partnership, launched in September 2023 by the United States.
