HM the King’s Vision for Atlantic: Clear Roadmap, New Deal for Africa & Beyond – Amrani –

The speech pronounced last month by HM King Mohammed VI to mark the 48th anniversary of the Green March is a roadmap and a “new deal” for the African continent, Morocco’s ambassador-designate to the United States, Youssef Amrani, said Friday in Marrakech.    Speaking during a high-level panel themed “Perspectives from the Wider Atlantic: Similarities and Variances”, held on the occasion of the 12th edition of the international conference “The Atlantic Dialogues”, Amrani underlined that the Royal Speech “has drawn an ambitious Royal Vision for the establishment of an Atlantic Africa”.       The diplomat noted that this Royal Vision “calls for audacity, ambition and innovation to create a dynamic space of co-development, shared progress, human interactions across the board, and most of all a space blessed with sustainable peace, mutual respect, stability and progress”.    The Atlantic, he stressed, means for Morocco much more than just geography. “It is pivotal space that allows the Kingdom to connect the dots of its far-reaching integration efforts throughout its immediate and larger surroundings”, the ambassador pointed out.    Recalling that the Atlantic is a “geopolitical gift, a space of opportunities and a prosperous ground for successful integrations processes”, Amrani noted that the Atlantic is also rife with challenges that require massive investments doubled by substantive political leadership”.    “This space needs coherent, forward looking, inclusive and crosscutting regional and sub-regional polices, especially in its African dimension”, he stressed.    The diplomat said that countries from the Global South, be it in Latin America or in Africa, are facing the same issues, in terms of development, good governance and provision of social services.    For these reasons, he explained, “we cannot separate our fate from that of other countries – the challenges are too great to face alone”, noting that Morocco “is always working to preserve and strengthen its traditional partnerships, as well as constantly engage with like-minded initiatives that aim to promote greater regional integration”.     In this regard, Amrani said that “connectivity is key in building lasting cooperation”, pointing out that “linking the shores through more cables, pipelines, and roads immediately gives you not only an economical advantage but at the same time a strong political will to favour cooperation, more than any dividing alternative”.    The ambassador noted that the priority is to establish cooperation mechanisms that can promote integration, which is not limited to the economic aspects but encompasses the political, security, human, cultural and scientific aspects. “This is the heart of Morocco’s diplomatic action driven by His Majesty the King within the AU, but also in all of our partnership relations with our brotherly and friendly African countries,” he underlined.    Further proof of this strong commitment, Africa today concentrates 2/3 of Morocco’s foreign direct investments (FDI), as the Kingdom has invested, since 2008, more than 3 billion dollars on the continent and is, today, the largest African investor in West Africa and is one of the two largest African investors across the continent, he recalled.    In Morocco, this process started at the domestic level, under the leadership of HM King Mohammed VI, he said, adding that this came through the development of a major policy for the Saharan regions of the country which became part of an integrated maritime economy, with sea fishing, logistics, ports, renewable energies, prospecting of offshore resources, tourism, as well as road, port, and airport infrastructure.    “The extension of the highways, the highspeed train, the Dakhla Atlantic port, are all part of an ambitious developmental vision of Morocco, starting with its Atlantic facade and ending with its extension to its natural African depth”, he added.    “The Royal Vision thus established a clear roadmap and provided the pillars for Morocco to share capacities with its neighboring African Atlantic countries on strategic and concrete projects that can better integrate our economies, such as Morocco-Nigeria Gas pipeline”, the diplomat underlined.