The Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs has indicated that the document on the areas of partnership will be signed before the end of this month to consolidate this "tripartite dimension"

Bourita anuncia una cooperación tripartita entre Marruecos, Israel y la UE

photo_camera PHOTO/FILE - The Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita

The Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, announced a tripartite cooperation between Morocco, Israel and the European Union during a joint press conference with the European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, Olivér Várhelyi.

"We have prepared in a document the areas of cooperation, which we will sign before the end of this month to consolidate this tripartite dimension", Bourita declared in Rabat, according to EFE.

Várhelyi, for his part, assured that this partnership "will solve crucial challenges" related to the management of water resources and the search for investment, according to the news agency.  

According to the European Commissioner, this initiative can also serve "to build bridges between peoples and to build peace". In this regard, he highlighted the "influential role" of Morocco, which re-established relations with Israel in December 2020 by joining the Abraham Accords.

During Várhelyi's visit to the Kingdom, the head of Moroccan diplomacy noted that relations between Rabat and the EU are experiencing "a positive development". "With the European Commission, above all, there is a positive development in the relationship and cooperation, there are concrete results," Bourita stressed, expressing his desire to continue "with this same practical logic and in this same spirit so that there are concrete projects that deepen the relationship between the two parties".  

Before Várhelyi, Bourita stressed that this good harmony between Rabat and Brussels in recent years has been marked by "more listening, deeper dialogue and a desire for the countries of the southern Mediterranean to take ownership of the projects developed".

This visit - the first by a senior European official since the European Parliament's resolution on press freedom in the Kingdom - "highlights the depth, strength and force of relations between the Kingdom and the European Commission," Bourita explained, reports Hespress.  

"The positive meetings are marked by a spirit of openness, friendship and the spirit of implementation of our commitments regarding the development of relations with the European Union," he added.

Bourita also noted that the bilateral partnership has deepened at the regional level, achieving "positive results". "We will work to implement all that has been agreed in order to open new horizons in the security field and in the area of migration," he said. 

Likewise, as reported by the Moroccan media, the minister asked Brussels to remove the Kingdom from its grey list, recalling that the reforms led to the country's removal from the grey list of the FATF, the anti-money laundering organisation.

The European Commissioner's trip is part of the "Euro-Moroccan Partnership for Shared Prosperity" and aims to develop projects announced in June 2019. During his stay, Várhelyi stressed that Morocco "is and will remain an essential partner" for Brussels

Five cooperation programmes worth around 500 million euros were also signed, relating to major priorities for both parties in the areas of social protection, agriculture and forestry, financial inclusion, public administration reform and migration. 

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