Eduardo González
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has limited itself to reminding Morocco that any activity related to marine resources must comply with the UN and International Law, in response to a question from the Coalición Canaria (Canarian Coalition) about the expressed intentions of King Mohammed VI to relaunch prospecting. of natural resources in the waters of Western Sahara.
On November 6, during his speech commemorating the 48th anniversary of the Green March, the Alawite Monarch stated that “national diplomacy has made it possible to promote the recognition of the Moroccan identity of Western Sahara” and that his country “is now in a better position.” strong and solid” in Western Sahara. In this context, Mohammed VI defended the conclusion of “the megaprojects” that are being carried out in the “southern provinces” (Morocco’s usual name for Western Sahara) and the establishment of an “integrated economy, based on the prospection of natural resources in the sea, continuing with investment in the areas of maritime fishing and the desalination of seawater, in order to promote agricultural activities, promote the blue economy and support renewable energies.
Just one day later, MP Cristina Valido García, from the Coalición Canarian, integrated into the Mixed Group, presented a written parliamentary question in which she asked for the opinion of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, about the statements of the king of Morocco.
The response from Foreign Ministry came more than a month later (December 15) and was imitated in a paragraph: “All exploration, exploitation, conservation and administration of marine resources must respect the United Nations Montego Bay Convention on the Law of the Sea. and the rest of the provisions of International Law.”
During the investiture session of the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, held in Congress on November 15 and 16, Cristina Valido stated before the plenary session: “We are concerned about knowing what is being discussed, agreed or planned in our waters and with the neighbors of Morocco. What about the prospecting that Morocco announces?”
On December 15, José Manuel Albares and his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, addressed in Rabat, among other issues, the delimitation of territorial waters with Western Sahara (a point that is of particular concern to the Canary Islands and that was included in the Roadmap adopted in April 2022 in the Moroccan capital by the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and King Mohammed VI). The two ministers assured the press that the work teams will continue to meet and Albares promised that the Canary Islands will be represented in those meetings. “There cannot be any unilateral measure or any type of surprise action,” everything must be resolved “through dialogue and cooperation,” declared the Moroccan minister.
Exactly two years ago, the then president of the Canary Islands, Ángel Víctor Torres Pérez (recently appointed Minister of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory), assured before the regional Parliament that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had guaranteed him that the oil prospecting carried out by Morocco on the Sahrawi coast they would not affect the waters of the archipelago. In September of that year, the National Office of Hydrocarbons and Mines of Morocco (ONHYM) and the Israeli company Ratio Petroleum Partnership closed an agreement for the exploration of potential oil and gas pockets off the coast of Dakhla, in an area of 109,000 square kilometers that includes waters of Western Sahara and the south of the Canary Islands.
