At odds with Madrid for almost a year over the Western Sahara issue, Morocco has so far banned maritime passenger traffic with Spain.
The normalization of relations between Rabat and Madrid is taking shape. Morocco will reopen its maritime links for passengers with Spain on Tuesday, the Ministry of Transport said Monday evening.
“The shipping companies will gradually resume their passenger services between the Moroccan ports of Tanger Med and Tanger-Ville and the Spanish ports of Algeciras and Tarifa,” the ministry said. If the resumption of regular passenger and coach traffic is scheduled for Tuesday, motorists will have to wait until April 18.
Seven million containers in Tanger Med in 2021
Located on the northern coast of Morocco, on the Strait of Gibraltar, just 14 km from the Spanish coast, Tangier is one of the largest ports in the Mediterranean, along with Marseille and Algeciras. 40 km east of the city, the Tanger Med industrial-port complex was built, operational since 2007, and whose terminals handled more than seven million containers in 2021.
Diplomatically scrambled with Madrid, Morocco had so far maintained a ban on maritime passenger traffic with Spain – a mode of transport popular with Moroccans residing in Europe – after the reopening of its maritime borders closed by the coronavirus pandemic. Covid-19.
A visit to seal the reconciliation
But Madrid ended nearly a year of the crisis on March 18 after reversing the Western Sahara issue and acknowledging Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed territory. The reconciliation between Spain and Morocco was sealed on Thursday with the visit to Rabat of Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez when the two neighboring countries decided to “inaugurate an unprecedented stage” in their partnership.
