<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, met this Wednesday in Paris with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, with whom he discussed, among other issues, "cooperation on security and migration."</strong></h4> The meeting, which took place on the sidelines of the fourth Feminist Foreign Policy Conference being held these days in the French capital, "confirms Spain's excellent relationship with two neighboring countries, France and Morocco," according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press release. During their meeting with Bourita, according to the Ministry, the two ministers reviewed "the excellent relations between Spain and Morocco, which, in both of their words, are at their best, as evidenced by record figures in trade, and cooperation on security and migration." “I met with my Moroccan counterpart, my good friend Nasser Bourita, in Paris,” Albares wrote on social media. “We continue to deepen the excellent relations of friendship and cooperation between our two countries, which are at their best,” he concluded. Separately, Albares held a working lunch this Wednesday with his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, at the Quai d’Orsay, where they reviewed the “excellent bilateral relations between Spain and France, as well as the international agenda, with the aim of continuing to work together for European values and peace in the Middle East and Ukraine,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported. Minister Albares traveled to Paris to speak at the fourth Feminist Foreign Policy Conference, where he reaffirmed Spain's commitment to equality in international politics and announced that Madrid will host the next Conference in 2026, the Ministry added. <h5><strong>Bourita</strong></h5> This Wednesday's meeting was Albares's third with Bourita this year and the twelfth since taking office in July 2021. At the previous meeting, which took place in Brussels last July, the two ministers discussed "the best way" to make Operation Crossing the Strait compatible with the "normal" passage of goods through the customs of Ceuta and Melilla. Likewise, at the first meeting of the year, held last April in Madrid (the first trip by the Moroccan Foreign Minister to the Spanish capital since November 2019), the Foreign Minister reiterated Spain's support for the autonomy plan proposed by King Mohammed VI in 2007, which represents "the most serious, realistic, and credible solution" to the Sahrawi conflict. Albares thus repeated the words spoken exactly three years earlier by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez in an unexpected letter to the King of Morocco. This reversal in Spain's historical position regarding Western Sahara made it possible to overcome a very serious diplomatic crisis with Rabat and open a new chapter in bilateral relations, which was reflected in the roadmap agreed upon on April 7, 2022, by Sánchez and Mohamed VI in Rabat. The meeting in Madrid took place three days after Bourita's meeting in Paris with his French counterpart, Jean-Noël Barrot, with whom Albares also met this Wednesday in the French capital. At the end of that meeting, the French Foreign Ministry issued a statement affirming that the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara "is the only basis for reaching a fair, lasting, and negotiated political solution in accordance with United Nations resolutions." In July 2024, French President Emmanuel Macron wrote the exact same words in a letter to King Mohammed VI.
