Green March Speech Reveals Morocco’s ‘Atlantic Vocation’ – Brazilian Expert –
The Moroccan identity highlighted in HM King Mohammed VI’s speech on the occasion of the 48th anniversary of the Green March “reveals a unique geopolitical vocation” in the Atlantic area, said Fabio Albergaria de Queiroz, professor at Brazil’s Higher Defense School (ESD). The royal speech “sheds important light on Morocco’s role in Africa, in particular, but also in the Atlantic area”, stressed Queiroz in a statement to MAP, pointing out that “His Majesty emphasizes that, without neglecting its privileged Mediterranean status, Morocco is seeking to assert itself as a key player in the Atlantic, since it has the longest Atlantic coast in Africa” where it has a remarkable port infrastructure. For the Brazilian geostrategy expert, “national identities are to some extent the result of multiple variables, ranging from material and objective criteria to intangible elements, situated in the realm of ideas and perceptions that enable countries to define who they are and what they want”. In this regard, added Queiroz, “His Majesty, by reinforcing the Atlantic Moroccan identity, reveals the importance of actions that enable the building of ‘bridges’ based on shared values and interests”. For him, “this means recognizing the Atlantic as a region made up of a set of countries where key perceptions, interests and concerns are so interconnected that their problems cannot reasonably be solved separately”. In this sense, he pointed out, “Morocco plays a fundamental role in building mechanisms for cooperation, trust and integration between this country and Africa, and between Africa and the Americas, which makes Morocco a strategic partner for Brazil, the largest country in the Atlantic”.