Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, assured yesterday, during his official trip to Morocco, that he trusts that “soon” there will be “significant progress” in the process of opening the land customs of Ceuta and Melilla, but he did not obtain any concrete commitment of the Moroccan authorities in this regard.
Pedro Sánchez made his fourth official bilateral visit to Morocco yesterday, when barely a year has passed since the High Level Meeting (RAN) in Rabat and just a few days before two years of the drastic change of course of the Spanish Government regarding the dispute over the Western Sahara, which allowed the recovery of bilateral diplomatic relations.
Upon arrival at the Mohammed V airport in Rabat, Sánchez – accompanied by the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares – was received by the head of the Moroccan Government, Aziz Akhannouch, with whom he subsequently held a meeting of more than two hours to address, among other issues, the soccer World Cup that Spain, Morocco and Portugal will co-organize in 2030, cooperation in the fight against terrorism and against human trafficking mafias and the opening of customs in Ceuta and Melilla.
Next, Sánchez and the rest of the delegation were entertained with an official lunch at the Guest Palace, attended by Albares, his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita; the Moroccan Minister of the Interior, Abdelouafi Laftit; and the Moroccan ambassador to Spain, Karima Benyaich.
After lunch, the President of the Government was received in audience by King Mohamed VI. This is Sánchez’s third meeting with the Alawite Monarch. The first occurred in November 2018, on his first official visit to Morocco four months after coming to office, and the second in April 2022, when Pedro Sánchez and Mohamed VI adopted the bilateral roadmap in Rabat that laid the foundations for the recovery of diplomatic relations. In February of last year, the king of Morocco did not receive the head of the Executive during the High Level Meeting (the first since 2015) in Rabat because he was on vacation in Gabon, despite the summit.
Pedro Sánchez’s agenda in Rabat concluded yesterday with an appearance before the media in which he assured that relations with Morocco are going through “their best moment in decades” and that, with this official visit, a boost has been given to bilateral cooperation “in all areas” and “a model of constructive neighborhood based on trust and mutual respect” has been consolidated. The head of Executive also expressed his desire for the Spanish and Moroccan teams to face each other in the 2030 World Cup final, because “it would be an important culmination of the extraordinary” relationship that the two countries are going through.
Likewise, he referred to the dispute over Western Sahara and reiterated his “commitment to the solution that the Government of Morocco has proposed, on a realistic basis,” in reference to the autonomy proposal for the former Spanish territory. In March 2022, the Spanish Government made a radical turn from its traditional position on Western Sahara with its decision to accept the Moroccan autonomy plan as “the most serious and realistic basis.” That “historic turn”, which was rejected by the entire rest of the parliamentary arc, including the government partners, allowed us to overcome the very serious diplomatic crisis that broke out in April 2021 after Spain’s decision to host the leader of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, for humanitarian reasons.
Ceuta and Melilla
In any case, the trip made yesterday by Sánchez to Rabat came at a time of great uncertainty regarding Morocco’s true will to fulfill one of the commitments of the roadmap adopted with Mohamed VI: the opening of land customs with Ceuta and Melilla.
In this regard, the head of the Executive declared that both countries must “continue working on customs normalization”, because it is an “essential part of our bilateral agenda” and because it will “promote transparent and regular trade that should benefit the neighboring regions.”
In 2023 we successfully complete the necessary tests and, on the Spanish side, everything is ready to begin regular cooperation in the customs of the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla,” he continued. “The Moroccan head of government has assured me that as soon as the preparations on the Moroccan side are completed we will be able to start,” he assured. “I hope that we can soon make significant progress,” added Pedro Sánchez, who announced an upcoming meeting between both governments “to establish what the customs regulations will be.”
Last December, during his first international trip in the new legislature, Albares conveyed to the Government of Morocco in Rabat that, on the part of Spain, “everything is ready so that land customs with Ceuta and Melilla can begin to operate” Therefore, “no further pilot tests are necessary” (referring to the three pilot tests carried out in January, February and May 2023). However, like Pedro Sánchez on this occasion, he was unable to obtain any date for the opening of customs from Nasser Bourita, who attributed the delays to “technical problems.”
