French President Emmanuel Macron is on a three-day state visit to Morocco, where he has already signed a number of bilateral agreements with Moroccan King Mohammed VI. The deals include investments worth a total of more than $10 billion for Morocco, a former French colony. (AP & Reuters)
Our Take
Macron’s visit cements a rapprochement between the two countries, with Moroccan newspapers describing bilateral ties as entering a “new honeymoon” ahead of the visit. The renewal of close relations notably comes just a few months after France shifted its position on Western Sahara, abandoning a U.N.-led process for settling the former Spanish colony’s aspirations for independence in favor of Morocco’s de facto sovereignty and autonomy plan for the territory.
Over the past three years, France-Morocco ties had deteriorated largely because of the Western Sahara issue. After the U.S. recognized Morocco’s sovereignty over the territory in 2020 as part of the Abraham Accords, Rabat declared that similar recognition would be a benchmark for its ties with other countries. That prompted Spain to follow suit in 2022.