Foreign Ministers promise to make progress on the common roadmap and set the RAN at the end of January 2023
The Spanish and Moroccan foreign ministers cannot complain that they did not have the opportunity to discuss the details of cooperation between the two countries. José Manuel Albares and Nasser Bourita met three times in the space of a week.
First at the Forum of Civilizations organized by the United Nations in Fez, then in Barcelona on the occasion of the meeting of the Union for the Mediterranean, and finally in Madrid.
According to the Moroccan minister, this is the first time he has visited Spain in more than three years. According to Moroccan sources, Bourita’s visit to Madrid was a stopover before returning to Madrid.
The two ministers met last October during the debate of the United Nations assembly, during which they announced the resumption of preparations for the High-Level Meeting (HLM) and the establishment of customs posts in the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla.
According to the statements of the two officials, the RAN will take place between the end of January and February next year, as well as the normalization of the passage of regulated goods through the border customs posts of Ceuta and Melilla.
Several Spanish newspapers have questioned Morocco’s real intentions to make progress on the joint roadmap signed by the two governments in April 2022. Questions arose about Morocco’s willingness when its delegation to the United Nations registered a document denying the existence of land borders with Spain. The document continues the Moroccan dialectic of sovereignty over Spanish cities in North Africa.
Minister Albares nevertheless repeated on many occasions the Moroccan government’s desire to comply with the points that make up the common roadmap. With regard to the most immediate aspect, that of the customs of Ceuta and Melilla, the local actors of the two cities are impatiently awaiting the establishment of regulated border posts in order to remedy the situation of asphyxiation from which the economy is suffering. Spanish enclaves.
The RAN will also be an opportunity for the two governments to establish in writing new terms for the administration of disputed areas, such as the waters surrounding the Chafarinas Islands, the rocky outcrops of Alhucemas and Vélez de la Gomera, and the islands of Alborán and Perejil.
