Morocco attends COMESSA summit
Morocco, Politics, 2/12/2001

Moroccan Prime Minister, Abderrahmane Youssoufi, arrived in Khartoum Sunday to represent King Mohammed VI in the third Summit of the COMESSA, a group gathering countries bordering the vast Sahara desert and the Sahel grassland zone to its south.

Youssoufi told the press upon arrival he was proud to represent King Mohammed VI in the swearing in ceremony of President Omar Hassan Al-Bachir for a second five year term at the head of Sudan and in the COMESSA Summit.

The 15-nation summit, to open this Monday, will be attended by 12 heads of states, including Libya's Moammar Kaddafi, who was behind the creation of COMESSA in 1997, as a political and economic grouping. The group is meant to be a step towards wider African unity.

The grouping musters the Central African Republic, Senegal, Zambia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Libya.

Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Nigeria will become full-fledged members of the grouping as of the Khartoum Summit.

Morocco views its adherence to COMESSA as an extension of the its action and radiance in Africa.

"Morocco's adherence to COMESSA is an extension of the Kindgom's action and radiance in Africa," Youssoufi told the press before flying to Khartoum.

Rabat, which has strong ties with COMESSA states, wants to develop the gathering into a global economic grouping that will contribute to the promotion of trade exchanges and investments in the region.

The Khartoum summit will discuss African domestic and interstate conflicts marring relations in the Sahel-Sahara bloc.

Previous Stories:
  Maghreb Union, imperative for the region, Sahara issue, Moroccan - Algerian problem, Libyan official   (1/15/2001)
  Libya leader supports trans-saharan railway project   (7/4/2000)

Please add a link on your webiste pointing to ArabicNews.com and bookmark ArabicNews.com & subscribe to our daily email news bulletin.

Search