King Mohammed calls for wider French - Moroccan strategic pact
Morocco-France, Politics, 3/21/2000

Visiting King Mohammed VI outlined Monday night the kind of future he wants for the kingdom and called for a wider and innovative strategic pact between Morocco and France as well as for a bolder framework for cooperation with the European Union.

In a keynote address in a dinner-banquet hosted in his honor by French president Jacques Chirac at the Elysee Palace,

He said Morocco and France could build together "an innovative, ambitious and different kind of partnership." He voiced satisfaction at existing political and economic ties insisting that only a voluntary and solidarity model can preserve these gains. Traditional mechanisms have grown obsolete making it necessary to probe and rationally approach a new bilateral realm to give Moroccan-French relations more depth and new rules, he said.

The king explained how this space to be could serve as a model given the stand of France within Europe and Morocco's spiritual radiance and presence in the Middle-East and Africa. This unprecedented partnership could turn out to be the reference so badly needed to give credibility and substance to the "grand Euro-Mediterranean scheme taking so long to emerge," he pointed out

In the same bold vein, King Mohammed VI invited Paris-- which is taking over at the head of the European Union in July-- to seize this major opportunity to go beyond the politically-correct but still conventional frame sketched out in Barcelona which has already shown "limits and uncertainties."

As to relations with the EU, the king said Morocco has the right to press for a partnership that is both "more and better" than association and, for a limited time, for "a little less than membership which in fact is dictated by commonsense, geography, and daily economic, social and cultural facts in Morocco."

The king also expounded his vision of tomorrow's Moroccan society saying commonsense and lucidity happily mix with the enthusiasm of the younger generation in taking on the challenges for more and better growth, more and better spiritual radiance and more and better overture onto others. The hope of the Moroccan ruler and all Moroccans, he added, is to see France involved in this undertaking putting into it "political resolve, boldness, creativity and means to see to the success of this alliance for progress."

In his address, president Chirac expressed his country's readiness to "accompany Morocco on the path of progress" saying France is the kingdom's major economic partner and that it is ready to further economic ties whether in the realm of privatization or in infrastructure development.

Chirac hailed Moroccan overture and determination to meet challenges of the future and paid tribute to the kingdom's role in the Mideast peace-process.

Morocco, he said, could rely on French support for closer ties with the European Union which is already its top economic partner and which will be more so with the association accord in force since early March 2000.

The French head of state announced that he meant to convene, in the second half of this year and under French chairmanship, a meeting of heads of state and government of the Union and the Mediterranean to make of the "mare nostrum" an area of dialogue and exchange which has been, for millennia, the calling of the Mediterranean.

Previous Stories:
  French and Moroccan press underscores exceptional ties with Morocco   (3/20/2000)
  King Mohammed starts state visit to France   (3/20/2000)
  Annan asks special envoy for Sahara to convene related parties   (3/17/2000)

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