The Diplomat
The King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, has sent a message to the King of Spain, Philip VI, to wish him “a speedy recovery and a full recovery” of COVID-19.
In the message, which was picked up yesterday by the state news agency MAP, the Moroccan monarch assures that he has received “with great emotion the disturbing news of the infection of King Philip VI of Spain with COVID-19” and expresses “his deep sympathy and his wishes for a speedy recovery and a full recovery.” “The Sovereign also sends to King Philip VI of Spain and Great Friend his best regards along with the expression of all his affection and consideration,” the message concludes.
Philip VI tested positive for COVID-19 last February 9, which has forced him to suspend all his scheduled official activities for a period of seven days, including the audience and lunch he was to offer that same day to the President of the Tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Željko Komšić.
Mohammed VI’s message coincides with the Spanish government’s attempts to redirect diplomatic relations with Morocco, clearly deteriorated since May 2021 as a result of the reception in Spain of the Polisario leader, Brahim Ghali, and the decision of the former US president, Donald Trump, to recognize Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara. In fact, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita warned at the end of May that Morocco’s unease with Spain was not due to “the affair of one man” (referring to Ghali), but to the fact that Spain had not adopted a position of open support for Rabat’s pretensions in the Sahara, as the United States had done.
After a tough bilateral confrontation, which included a massive invasion of Ceuta by thousands of immigrants thanks to the complicity of the Moroccan forces and the call for consultations of the Moroccan ambassador in Madrid, Karima Benyaich, the situation began to improve last August, when Mohammed VI publicly expressed his desire to continue working with Spain in order to “inaugurate a new unprecedented stage” in the bilateral relationship based on “trust, transparency, mutual consideration and respect for commitments”.
For his part, Philip VI took advantage of the reception for the Diplomatic Corps on January 17 to pronounce for the first time on the relationship with Morocco, which he invited to “begin to materialize the new bilateral relationship”. These words were coupled, that same week, with the King and Queen’s gesture of visiting the Moroccan stand at FITUR. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has stated on numerous occasions that the signals coming from Morocco are “positive” and that the relationship between the two countries is characterized by “fluid contacts”.
