Upper House Delegation in Paris to Discuss Moroccan-French Cooperation

The strengthening of Moroccan-French cooperation in various fields was at the center of talks held, Wednesday in Paris, by a delegation of the Morocco-France friendship group at the House of Councillors. The Moroccan delegation, visiting Paris and Normandy on December 14-16, as part of strengthening cooperation ties between the two parliamentary institutions, met with Senator Christian Cambon, chairman of the France-Morocco Friendship Group in the Senate and chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Armed Forces, in the presence of members of the group. The meeting focused on ways to inject a new dynamic to the exchanges between the two parliamentary institutions and the recent visit to the Kingdom, including in the southern provinces, of a delegation of French senators, members of this group. Both parties have highlighted the importance of this visit to Paris of Moroccan parliamentarians and which comes in the implementation of the work program established jointly between the House of Councillors and the French Senate. The Moroccan delegation was also received by the President of the Senate, Gerard Larcher, before going to the hemicycle where a solemn welcome was reserved for its members under the applause of senators, in the presence of several members of the French executive. “We exchanged first of all on the quality of our interparliamentary cooperation, the French Senate having the leading role in the partnership and the European twinning that we have between our Houses and the House of Councillors of Morocco, in the plans of improvement of the administrative functioning and even more important of the legislative functioning”, the president of the French Senate told MAP at the end of this meeting. For his part, Mohamed Zidouh, chairman of the friendship group Morocco-France in the House of Councillors, noted that this visit is part of the cooperation between the two Moroccan and French legislative institutions. This visit is, according to him, an example of parallel diplomacy conducted by the House of Councillors, describing as “very important” the meeting with the President of the Senate during which several issues relating to cooperation and Franco-Moroccan friendship have been discussed. For his part, Cambon stressed, in a speech at the reception reserved for members of the Moroccan delegation, that this visit marks the resumption of meetings between members of the friendship group, after three years of interruption because of the Covid pandemic. Morocco represents for France one of the “most reliable” allies, he said, highlighting the attachment of the Senate and the friendship group to the improvement of this Franco-Moroccan relationship and emphasizing the reforms undertaken by the Kingdom in various fields. The delegation, which met earlier in the morning with officials of the Medef (French employers), was received at the Quai d’Orsay by Olivier Bech, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs in charge of foreign trade, attractiveness and French abroad. The meeting focused particularly on economic and commercial cooperation between Morocco and France as well as on the francophonie.