Morocco has succeeded in obtaining a joint declaration with Spain - coinciding with the bilateral summit held in Rabat - which assumes that the territory of Sahara is a Moroccan autonomous region, confirming Spain's abandonment of the Sahrawi people and their project for self-determination. The text of the declaration indicates that "with regard to the issue of Western Sahara, Spain reiterates the position expressed in the joint declaration adopted on April 7, 2022". And what did that statement say? "Spain considers the initiative for Moroccan autonomy, presented in 2007, as the most serious, realistic and credible basis for resolving this dispute", it stated. It was a declaration that flew in the face of the territory's UN-recognized right to "free determination".
Prime minister Pedro Sánchez did not make any mention of the former Spanish colony in the two addresses he gave during the summit, at the opening of the plenary session and in the final institutional declaration, and the Spanish government has reiterated in recent days that there had been no changes with respect to what was said on the issue last April. The same is not true of the Moroccan PM, Aziz Ajanuch, who is exultant because he was able to impose the Moroccan vision on Spain. At the closing of the economic forum on Wednesday, the prime minister welcomed the pro-Moroccan position adopted by Sánchez and he did the same again in two further comments made this Thursday, remarking that for Morocco the Sahara is "the leading national cause" .
Promotion of Spanish language
Madrid and Rabat also committed to strengthen the learning of the Spanish language in Moroccan schools, colleges and institutes and to request the development of a joint plan for the establishment of bilingual sections - Spanish-Arabic - in the Moroccan education system at all levels, primary, secondary and higher. They also reiterated their "commitment to the protection and guarantee of human rights as an essential basis for democratic coexistence, the rule of law and good governance". In this regard, both governments committed themselves to "reinforcing their cooperation in this area in the new stage of bilateral relations". However, they have not reached any agreement to reopen the borders around the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which for now will not be formally decided and will remain in provisional status.
Foreign minister with egg on face
Additionally, the Spanish minister of foreign affairs, José Manuel Albares, found himself politically embarrassed in Morocco, when he was unable to respond to a question on whether Moroccan king Mohamed VI had snubbed the Spanish PM, and obsessively appealed for "off the record" treatment, asserting that what he said was not for publication. The ministerial advisers tried to protect the minister by also claiming this status, in a situation that succeeded only in demonstrating that the snub was the hot potato of the Moroccan-Spanish summit.