HM King Mohammed VI said as the State of Hawaii pays tribute to His Majesty this week, it will first and foremost be paying tribute to a people and a civilization whose development model was founded on the values of peace, tolerance and dialogue.

In a speech addressed to Governor of the State of Hawaii, Neil Abercrombie, the Hawaiian Senate and residents on the occasion of His Majesty King Mohammed VI’s Week in Hawaii, the Monarch noted that “when the State of Hawaii pays tribute to Our Majesty this week, it will first and foremost be paying tribute to a people and a civilization whose development model was founded on the values of peace, tolerance and dialogue, and who built a society on ideals of freedom, justice, solidarity, respect for human rights and the safeguarding of human dignity, in addition to participative democracy and openness to the cultures and creeds of other human civilizations.”

The Sovereign stressed that these are the same values that the American and Moroccan people share and which, together with President Obama, His Majesty has resolved to defend across the world, alongside nations and peoples yearning for a world of peace, fraternity, tolerance and the peaceful resolution of disputes, a world where sustainable human development prevails.

Hailing the celebration of His Majesty King Mohammed VI’s Week in Hawaii, a kind initiative which reflects the close relationship between the State of Hawaii and the Region of Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer, as well as the longstanding friendship and strategic cooperation between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Morocco, HM the King said he followed, with great interest and support, President Obama’s efforts to “promote the strategic partnership our two nations have gradually forged between them.”

HM the King said It was “most fortunate the fact that this event coincides with the first meeting of the Moroccan-US Business Development Conference, due to be held in Washington on December 4, as part of the Moroccan-US dialogue initiated earlier this year,” expressing confidence that this new trend in the field of bilateral cooperation will usher in promising, far-reaching prospects for partnership between regions, economic and political actors, civil society organizations, and research centers and universities in Morocco and the US, and will help optimize the use of the free trade agreement between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Morocco, signed in 2004.

Against the backdrop of this positive, promising environment, the Sovereign said, the State of Hawaii will no doubt serve as a model for this new generation of partnerships in the sense that cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding, due to be initialed this week between government entities and professional and associative organizations in Morocco and their counterparts in the State of Hawaii, will ensure effective implementation of the strategic vision which characterizes the future relationship between the two nations in areas of mutual interest.

For HM the King, The strong bonds Hawaii managed to build with Morocco date back to 1999, when an important delegation of Moroccan youth attended the first Millennium Young People’s Congress in Honolulu. Those foundations were further enhanced in 2005 when Morocco appointed an honorary consul of the Kingdom to the State of Hawaii, he added.

This move, the Monarch recalled, further strengthened the links established at the highest level between officials, economic, political and associative actors in the State of Hawaii and their counterparts in the Region of Rabat-Sale-Zemmour-Zaer, and set the proper perspective for regular exchange of working visits and joint activities in both Rabat and Honolulu.

Noting the special interest in Morocco by many Hawaiian decision makers, including Governor Neil Abercrombie, HM the King said the Kingdom is “proud of all that has been achieved since 1999, and of the decision made by the Governor and the Senate, and through them, the State’s residents, to organize a week named after His Majesty.”

The Sovereign stressed that thanks to the audacity, quality and pertinence of this initiative, the State of Hawaii conveys a strong message to the world that “the real obstacle to the mutual development of friendship, fraternity and solidarity among peoples lies not in long distances, but in the lack of a strong will and a firm belief in the relevant character of budding innovative partnerships that can turn geographical distance into human proximity, by the sheer force of its practical results.“