Senegalese president underscores importance of King Mohammed's visit

Senegalese president, Abdoulaye Wade, underscored, in an interview conducted jointly by MAP and the Moroccan TV "TVM," the "exceptional" importance of the official visit that king Mohammed VI will pay to Senegal, starting this Tuesday.

The Senegalese president said it is an honor for his country to welcome the first official visit to a sub-Saharan country by the Moroccan sovereign and added it was no coincidence that he himself chose to visit Morocco (May 2000) as his first trip to Africa when he took office. He went on that the late kings Mohammed V and Hassan II showed interest in Senegal and this exchange of visits is only meant to consolidate relations inherited from ancestors.

Wade also recalled how he was moved by the warm message that king Mohammed VI sent him to congratulate him on his election as president of Senegal. "I received thousands of messages from all over the world, and my aides and myself noted that the warmest message came from king Mohammed VI," he said, adding it expressed a strong will to make of the Rabat-Dakar axis a privileged cooperation axis.

On cooperation between the two countries, President wade said the most vital economic sectors in Senegal, such as energy and the new information technologies, are benefiting from Moroccan experience.

President Wade also surveyed the series of meetings he held with the sovereign, in Morocco during his official visit and in Yaounde (Cameroon) at the French-Africa summit.

To a question on the Organization of African Unity, from which Morocco withdrew in 1984 to protest the illegal admission of the puppet self-proclaimed Sahrawi republic, the Senegalese president explained that the OAU failed to prevent or settle African conflicts, but went on that with the African Unity project now under study new structures will be set up with more power to settle and prevent conflicts.