Moroccan-Spanish relations probed in Rabat

Moroccan-Spanish relations were surveyed at a meeting here Thursday between Moroccan Secretary of State for foreign affairs and cooperation, Taib Fassi Fihri, and Spanish peer, Nique Nadal.

Talks focused on economic and financial relations, Fassi told MAP after the meeting. He said the two sides are for a positive and constructive approach, namely to adequately prepare the meeting of the Moroccan-Spanish high joint commission, to be held in the coming months in Morocco.

The two officials discussed the need to readapt the implements regulating their economic and financial cooperation, mainly in matters of debt swapping and use of loans extended by the Spanish government to finance social-economic development projects in Morocco.

Fassi said he also discussed with his Spanish peer issues related to the Moroccan community settled in Spain and the question of illegal emigration.

Fassi said he outlined to the Spanish official that struggle against the illegal emigration is a shared responsibility that goes beyond the Moroccan-Spanish relations and that "requires a response on the part of our Spanish friends and on the part of all our European partners."

The meeting also discussed the coming meeting of the Mediterranean forum and the moves to be made by Spain-- when it holds the European Union chairmanship next January-- towards the Mediterranean in general and Morocco in particular.

The Spanish official on his part described Moroccan-Spanish relations as intense and said the two countries are willing to find the adequate responses to the questions of mutual concern such as emigration, investments and cultural exchanges.

The meeting of the high joint commission before the end of the year provides the appropriate frame to work out responses to pending questions, he said.

He noted that both countries have a key role to play in the Mediterranean region and in promoting Mediterranean integration, adding that Morocco, being the country that made most progress in economic, social and political reforms, can easily be integrated in the north and in the Mediterranean community.

He also underlined the positive evolution of exchanges between the two countries, saying these exchanges have doubled over the past five years. He said there exist means to bolster these relations so that Spanish products find an outlet in Morocco and Moroccan products, such as textile items, shoes and agricultural products, enter easily Spain and all the other member of the EU.