Morocco-Spain high level meeting confirmed for February 1 in Rabat

The Moroccan and Spanish governments are expected to hold a joint summit on February 1 and 2 in Rabat, nearly a year after the reconciliation of the two countries, the Spanish Foreign Ministry announced on Wednesday.

"Spain and Morocco have decided that the 12th high-level meeting will take place on February 1 and 2 in Rabat," he said in a statement.

Spanish Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and a dozen ministers from his government will take part in this summit, we learned from the ministry, which was however unable to indicate who would participate on the Moroccan side.

The holding of such a summit meeting was announced last April during Pedro Sanchez's visit to Rabat. He had been received there by King Mohammed VI to seal the reconciliation between the two countries after a year of diplomatic tensions linked to the sensitive issue of Western Sahara.

The reception in Spain in April 2021 of the leader of the Sahrawi separatists of the Polisario Front, a sworn enemy of Rabat, to be treated there for Covid-19 had triggered this estrangement, the culmination of which had been the arrival in May of more than 10,000 migrants in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta thanks to the relaxation of Moroccan controls.

Madrid then denounced "blackmail" and "aggression" on the part of Rabat, which for its part recalled its ambassador to Spain, who did not return there until March 2022 after the normalization of relations between the two countries.

This normalization was made possible by Spain's decision to publicly support Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara, which Madrid now considers "the most serious, realistic and credible basis" for resolving the conflict in the former Spanish colony.