COVID-19 Concerns May Delay Morocco-Spain Summit Again, Says Spanish Foreign Minister

The visit of the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, to Rabat "could take place between February and March", Arancha González Laya, Minister of Foreign Affairs, said in an interview with Spanish National Radio on Thursday, January 21. According to her, a possible second postponement would be linked to "the current health situation", and not to a "political reason". "We are working on the date (…) but at no time has the delay been attributable to political reasons, but only to health reasons," she stressed.

During this interview, the Spanish minister was also questioned about the American recognition of Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara and the arrival in the Oval Office of the new President Joe Biden. "I’m not going to get into that game, it’s a decision that corresponds to the United States, and Spain will not remove it and will not get into this discussion either," she said.

The head of Spanish diplomacy thus seems to backtrack. Last December, she claimed that "the Spanish government already has a series of contacts with Biden’s team to seek a return to multilateralism." "It will be up to him (Joe Biden, ed.) to assess the situation, to see how he wants to position himself and to work to bring about a just but also lasting solution," she had added.