FAR Lieutenant General, Inspector General, Commander of South Zone Co-chairs 12th Morocco-US Defense Consultative Committee in Washington

On the High Instructions of His Majesty the King, Supreme Leader and Chief of General Staff of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR), Lieutenant General, Inspector General of the FAR and Commander of the South Zone, co-chaired with the American Secretary of Defense, on Tuesday in Washington, the 12th Morocco-US Defense Consultative Committee. On this occasion, the Inspector General of the FAR, leading a large military delegation, held meetings with senior Pentagon officials, with the purpose to discuss bilateral military cooperation and ways to strengthen it in the future, the General Staff of the FAR said in a statement. In this context, the Inspector General of the FAR welcomed the excellence and exceptional nature of Moroccan-American cooperation and its positive results both in terms of training and joint training, as well as supply of high-performance equipment and war materials with the necessary support, while stressing that bilateral relations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the United States of America, deeply rooted in history and marked by mutual respect, are called upon to strengthen even more to serve the common interests of the two countries. During these meetings, the Lieutenant General, Inspector General of the FAR and Commander of the South Zone, addressed the challenges in the North African and Sahel-Saharan region, where the security situation is more worrisome because of the intervention of extra-regional actors and their collusion with separatist movements, reported the statement. He said in this regard that the Kingdom remains determined to address the various threats to its environment, through the strengthening of both alliances and its operational capabilities, with the main objective of ensuring the defense of its territorial integrity and security of its borders, said the same source. This visit was also an opportunity for both parties to examine the goals of the roadmap “2020-2030” to adapt to the changing regional challenges related to security and defense. In this sense, the FAR Lieutenant General, Inspector General and Commander of the South Zone, recalled the effective commitment of the Kingdom to peace and regional stability and its pioneering role as an exporter of peace and security in the region, which has been achieved, in particular, by the deployment of more than 1700 Moroccan Blue Helmets in CAR and DRC, and the creation, thanks to the support of the United States of America, of the Center of Excellence for Peacekeeping Operations. The strategic cooperation between the Kingdom of Morocco and the United States of America was crowned, in October 2020, by the signing of a memorandum of understanding outlining the ten-year roadmap 2020-2030, for the consolidation of bilateral relations in the field of defense.