French President Emmanuel Macron arrives in Morocco on Monday to meet with the North African leaders and discuss partnerships on trade, climate change and immigration.
During the president’s three-day visit to Rabat, the French leader plans to meet with King Mohammed VI and Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and address Morocco’s parliament.
Macron’s visit comes months after he reversed France’s long-term stance and backed Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara. The move drew the country to Morocco and alienated it from Algeria, which hosts refugees run by the pro-independence Polisario Front and has long pushed for the UN to organise a referendum to resolve the conflict.
Warm reunion between France and Morocco
On the eve of the visit, Moroccan publications extolled a warm reunion and “a new love honeymoon” between the two countries, with French flags flying all over Rabat.
France and Morocco have historically co-operated on issues such as counter-terrorism and the Western Sahara. Morocco is the main destination for French investment in Africa, and France is Morocco’s main trading partner. It imports French cereals, renewable energy infrastructure such as turbines and weapons. Morocco also exports goods to France, including tomatoes, cars, and aircraft parts.
Moroccans are among the largest overseas communities in France, where North African immigrants are a key political audience and the centre of debate about the role of Islam and immigration in French society. In recent months, France’s new interior minister, Bruno Retailleau, has called for a tough approach to immigration and deals with countries like Morocco to better prevent illegal border crossings into Europe.
On Macron’s last visit to Morocco, he and King Mohammed VI inaugurated Al Boraq, Africa’s first high-speed railway, possible thanks to French funding and trains made by French firm Alstom.
Despite the close ties, relations between France and Morocco were sometimes fragile, Morocco was a French protectorate from 1912 to 1956. In 2021, Morocco temporarily suspended consular relations with France, reducing the number of visas offered to Moroccans in protest at its refusal to provide documents needed to deport migrants from Morocco without authorisation.
Relations between the two countries deteriorated further that year when it was revealed in 2021 that Moroccan security services had used Israeli spyware to invade the devices of activists and politicians, including Macron. Moroccan authorities denied this and sued over the allegations.
