Morocco - France, exceptional ties, renovated partnership, says ambassador

France's ambassador to Rabat surveyed relations between the two countries in 2000 saying that they have been "productive and outstanding" and that the royal visit to Paris was the confirmation of exceptional ties binding the two countries and the need for a renovated partnership.

The diplomat told MAP the Morocco-France diplomatic couple worked perfectly with permanent and fruitful consultation as shown at the Marseilles "Euro-Med" conference where the kingdom's support was decisive. Morocco, he said, benefited from this coordination at the meeting of the association Council under French presidency in Luxembourg alluding to the Moroccan Sahara issue and the unanimous support of the 15 to Baker's mission and direct contacts proposed by the Moroccan side in Berlin.

In the economic realm, exchanges are very high and balanced and France resumed again its leading role of major investor in the kingdom in 2000, said de Bonnecorse insisting the year ended with the French giant Vivendi-Universal purchase of 35 PC of Maroc-Telecom, boasting the largest ever foreign investment in Morocco with 2.3 billion USD. In the coming decade, the kingdom will be one of the three leading countries in communication technologies in the continent and the sole nexus with Europe, the ambassador pointed out hailing the Moroccan airlines order for four Airbus A321 air-crafts.

The French diplomat also assessed his country's chair of the European Union, July-December 2000, and said an enlarged union could only open new opportunities for Moroccan products. The Barcelona spirit, while lacking force, is still blowing because it is irreversible.