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Germany courts Morocco by multiplying gestures to recover the relationship

2022-01-17T14:54:05.749Z


The new tripartite government intends to close the crisis that has frozen 4,200 million in German development aid. Despite the fact that its position on Western Sahara has not changed, Rabat seems ready to thaw


Gesture by gesture, and without committing to anything, the new German government is determined to accelerate reconciliation with Morocco and close an episode that has already lasted for more than 10 months.

The diplomatic crisis that Rabat triggered in March by suspending relations with the German Embassy seems close to its end in view of the approaches, at first subtle, now clearer, made by the tripartite led by Olaf Scholz and the response of Morocco.

The first nod came a few days after the new German government took office, a tripartite of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals. On the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, commanded by the green Annalena Baerbock, an apparently bland text was updated without prior notice – they are brief summaries of bilateral relations with different countries – which included a message that Rabat liked very much: “In In 2007, Morocco made an important contribution to this solution by presenting an autonomy plan”. The text itself underlined that Germany's position regarding the conflict in Western Sahara "has not changed in decades", but that small gesture was enough for the Moroccan media to speak of a change in Berlin. In the German press the movement had hardly any repercussion.

Already in 2022, on the occasion of the New Year, Germany once again sent another signal to Rabat. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier wrote to King Mohamed VI inviting him to visit Berlin, something the monarch has been avoiding for nearly 15 years. And in his letter, which was publicized by Rabat despite the fact that, according to Berlin, it was a "private letter", he assured that the Moroccan proposal for autonomy for Western Sahara is a "good basis" for resolving the conflict. The text applauds the "vast reforms" undertaken by the monarch and the role of Morocco in resolving the conflict in Libya.

The letter was intended as an example of shadow diplomacy to smooth relations with Rabat. In fact, the text is only known from the Moroccan side, as Steinmeier's office has refused to divulge its content. When asked by EL PAÍS about the meaning of this second gesture from Berlin, the foreign minister's spokesman was much clearer than the government had been in public until then. "Both Germany and Morocco have an interest in continuing the extensive and very good diplomatic relations that have existed until recently," he said, adding that Berlin "welcomes the fact that steps are being taken to end the crisis." ”.

Diplomatic sources confirm that the new Executive that came out of the polls in September has proposed to build bridges with Rabat as soon as possible and that it trusts that the successive gestures towards Morocco will result in the return of the ambassador and the arrival of the new German representative to the Moroccan capital. It is the definitive signal that Berlin is waiting for to consider that relations have finally normalized. Olaf Scholz's spokesman referred to this a few days ago: "Mutual expectations can be much better clarified with dialogue, and this would be intensified by quickly issuing the placet for the designated German ambassador."

"The ice melts. There is a clear interest on both sides to return to friendly diplomatic relations as the crisis is becoming costly, not only in economic terms," ​​says Kressen Thyen, a researcher at the University of Bremen and an expert on North Africa. The German change is only in tone, not in substance. “Germany has not changed its position on Western Sahara and continues to support a solution based on the latest UN resolution. At the same time, Foreign Affairs recognizes that this solution should be acceptable to all parties and that the Moroccan Government is contributing to the process”, he adds. This "diplomatic ambiguity" will allow, in his opinion, things to return to the way they were before the crisis.

The Moroccan economy is highly dependent on its trade relationship with Europe.

53.1% of its imports come from there and 66.7% of everything it exports arrives.

Spain is its main trading partner, but Germany also plays an important role: it exports to Morocco worth 2,200 million euros, has almost 300 companies operating in the country, especially in Casablanca and Tangier, and significant pending investments in renewable energies for produce green hydrogen there, the alternative fuel with which it hopes to help reduce its emissions in the coming years.

4.2 billion in frozen development aid

Development aid has been affected by the 10 months of suspended diplomatic relations. More than 1,200 million euros in subsidies have been practically “frozen”, in the words of the spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, led by the Social Democrat Svenja Schulze. In total, adding loans intended to support the Moroccan business fabric and direct aid, Morocco has stopped receiving some 4,200 million euros from Berlin. During the crisis, German foundations and organizations with a delegation in Morocco (the development bank KfW, for example) have practically suspended all their activity.

Spanish diplomatic sources deny that a reconciliation between Germany and Morocco will increase the pressure on Madrid, leaving it alone in its diplomatic conflict with Rabat. “We have our own roadmap and we are not affected by what others do. The thing is quite well on track, although it cannot be anticipated when the definitive normalization will take place”, allege the same sources, informs

Miguel González

.

The Spanish government has not gone as far as the German, which has described the Moroccan proposal for autonomy for the Sahara as a "serious and credible effort" and a "good basis" for reaching an agreement. However, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, was open last Tuesday to contemplating autonomy as an option, when he said that Spain is in favor of "finding a solution to a conflict that has lasted too long" and underlined that this must be "fair, political and mutually acceptable, within the framework of the United Nations." But he added: "within the full range of possibilities established by Security Council resolutions." In other words, Spain does not demand the holding of a self-determination referendum and is willing to accept autonomy if the parties so agree and the UN blesses it.

What Spain is not willing to do, nor is Germany, is to leave the United Nations framework, as Trump did with the unilateral recognition of the

Moroccan nature

of the Sahara. Albares met on December 4 in Rome with the new UN envoy, Staffan de Mistura, who this Sunday met with the head of the Polisario Front, Brahim Ghali, in Tindouf (Algeria) on his first regional tour. As he also did with his predecessors in office, the Spanish minister offered Mistura a Spanish Air Force plane for his travels in the area. Albares's words on the Sahara, according to diplomatic sources, have been well received in Rabat, another thing is whether he considers them sufficient or Morocco intends to obtain greater concessions from Spain than those made by Germany.


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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-01-17

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