Royal Speech Reaffirms HM the King’s ‘Long-sighted Strategic Approach’ to Africa – Peter Pham –

The Royal speech on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the Green March reaffirms HM the King’s “long-sighted strategic approach to Africa”, said Peter Pham, a high-profile member of the prestigious US think tank The Atlantic Council. “The speech by His Majesty on the 48th anniversary of the Green March not only reinforces the African identity that is part and parcel of the country’s history, as recognized in its constitution, but also reiterates one of the key themes of the King’s long-sighted strategic approach to Africa,” Pham told MAP. The former U.S. Special Envoy for the Sahel and Great Lakes Regions of Africa, who commended the Sovereign’s intercontinental integration vision which aims to promote access of Sahel countries to the Atlantic Ocean, stressed that “through political and diplomatic engagement, extensive trade and investment, infrastructure links, and people-to-people relationships, the Kingdom is very much part of the future of the 21st century’s ‘continent of hope’.” “Moreover, through networks stretching both northward and westward across the Atlantic, Morocco is also poised to facilitate strengthening of ties between its partners in Africa and those in Europe and America,” the US expert pointed out.