King Mohammed VI of Morocco has vowed to make of the Rabat-Abuja strategic alliance a framework for consultation and cooperation on all African issues.
This came during a phone call the Moroccan King had, on Wednesday, with President Muhammadu Buhari, according to the North Africa Post, quoting a statement issued by the monarch’s office.
The King, according to the statement, enquired about the health condition of Buhari and also thanked him for his personal involvement concerning the return of Morocco to the African Union.
The King “assured him as to his intention to make of the Rabat-Abuja strategic axis a framework for consultation and cooperation on all African issues,” the statement added.
Talks between the two leaders also touched on the conclusions of the meeting King Mohammed VI chaired in Casablanca, last December, on the Morocco-Nigeria Atlantic gas pipeline and the upcoming stages of this strategic project, the statement said.
The gas pipeline project-related agreement was signed early December during a visit by King Mohammed VI to the Nigeria.
The two countries’ sovereign wealth funds will jointly develop the pipeline to run about 4,000 Km along the West African coast from Nigeria to Morocco. Coastal countries that will benefit from this project include Benin, Togo, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Gambia, Senegal and Mauritania.
The pipeline is expected to help West Africa bolster its energy security while channelling Nigerian gas as far as Europe.
During the phone talk, the monarch also informed Buhari about his latest African tour that led him to several countries (Ghana, Zambia, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire) as well as about Morocco’s application to become full-fledged member of the West African Economic Community, ECOWAS, and the contacts he made in this respect with the region’s heads of states.Morocco’s membership to ECOWAS is viewed as a natural step, given the strong relationship binding the North African kingdom and the countries of the regional bloc. Morocco is the largest African investor in the sub-region and the second in the continent
With the inclusion of Morocco, the ECOWAS will bolster its aggregated GDP to the 16th rank globally ahead of Turkey and right after Indonesia.
The admission of Morocco to the ECOWAS sub-region will also make it second largest economy after Nigeria. And due to its geographic location and trade agreements with the EU, Turkey, the US and several Arab countries, as well as its port and airport hubs, Morocco will offer West African countries a gateway to new markets.
For Morocco, joining the ECOWAS will help strike a balance in its foreign trade by gearing exports towards Africa instead of the EU, which takes 60 percent of Morocco’s foreign trade
“This project will of course allow natural gas to be transported from gas-producing countries to Europe. But more than that, it will benefit the whole of West Africa,” King Mohammed VI said in his watershed speech before the 28th summit of the African Union held in Addis Ababa from January 30 to 31.
Morocco will also add impetus to efforts aiming at achieving food security in the region through sharing its expertise in the field of agricultural development and fertilizers industry.
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