From July 25 to July 27, Macky Sall, president of Senegal, will begin an official state visit to Morocco and will be received by King Mohammed VI in Casablanca. This visit comes four months and ten days after the March 15 visit that the King made to Dakar. It was the first visit by the King to Dakar after Macky Sall had become president.
This visit will provide another opportunity to consolidate further the historical longstanding relations binding Morocco and Senegal, to sign more cooperation agreements, and to give a new momentum to investments, both at the level of state-owned companies and at the level of the private sector.
Economic relations between the two countries are described as very good and according to 2011 figures, Senegal was Morocco’s leading trade partner in West Africa with a volume estimated at $122 million.
This bilateral cooperation is not limited to the trade and economic sectors only but also covers education and training. Hundreds of Senegalese students are attending Moroccan Universities and other higher institutes with grants from the Moroccan Government. Many Senegalese civil servants and even military also benefit from training and refreshing courses in Morocco.
The two countries are also bound by strong historical and religious ties and the followers of the Tijani confraternity regularly come to Morocco to visit the Mausoleum of Sheikh Sidi Ahmed Tijani, the founder of this soufi confraternity, who is buried in Fes.
Besides these very strong economic, cultural and spiritual ties, Morocco and Senegal have established a political partnership that defies time and men. Whether Senegal is ruled by a Leopold Sedar Senghor, a Abdou Diouf, a Abdoulaye Wade or a Macky Sall, the country has always been keen on preserving its firm political ties with the North African kingdom, and Morocco, under the reign of the late Mohammed V, the late Hassan II or under the reign of King Mohammed VI has always endeavoured to upgrade its privileged partnership with the West African country.
Senegal’s President Macky Sall has always underscored the need for Morocco to rejoin the Africa Union after 29 years of absence, diplomatic sources in Dakar said.
“It is important that the Kingdom of Morocco reunites with the great African family and I will endeavour to make this happen,” the Senegalese President has stated in a statement that was jointly prepared by the Senegalese and Moroccan Foreign ministers to mark the end of King Mohamed VI’s official visit to Senegal on March 15, 2013.
Morocco pulled out of the then Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1984 over the institution’s support for the self-determination of the Western Sahara, which Morocco considers part of its territory.
The statement further quoted President Sall as saying that Morocco’s initiative for a broader autonomy of the Western Sahara region constitutes the ideal solution to the conflict.
Undoubtedly, the state visit of the Senegalese President to Morocco will provide a new opportunity to the two heads of state to reiterate their mutual commitment to the everlasting, outstanding relations binding the two countries.
