France Seeks to Mend Ties with Morocco as Diplomatic Tensions Ease

Recently, King Mohammed VI and French President Emmanuel Macron exchanged by telephone. They also write to each other. For their part, Moroccan officials are starting to receive Christophe Lecourtier, the French ambassador to Rabat, who took up his post in September 2022 with a view to thawing the crisis between Morocco and France. "Brigitte Macron is also playing her part to encourage the thaw," a Moroccan source tells L’Opinion.fr. "She never fails to wish all the holidays of the royal family." "The Franco-Moroccan relationship is a gem that needs to be preserved," confides Hubert Védrine, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs. "Everything must be done to put it back beyond the state of walking."

Moreover, the French president, during the Conference of Ambassadors and Ambassadors, estimated that it was time to "rethink very deeply" France’s partnership with Morocco and the rest of the Maghreb and the Mediterranean. "Let’s be lucid, bilateral relations are not at the level they should be, I’m not going to (re)summon each one here, but with Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt, but also the countries of the Middle East," declared Emmanuel Macron, stressing that it is not, however, a "lack of commitment with many of them."

The thawing of the crisis will undoubtedly go through a political response. Morocco has constantly put pressure on France to recognize its sovereignty over the Sahara, as countries like Spain and Israel have already done. Despite the many calls from French politicians, such as former President Nicolas Sarkozy and Eric Ciotti, the president of the LR party, Emmanuel Macron has remained undecided. But according to some indiscretions, Paris is trying to move forward on the issue. "This could be translated by a declaration from the French head of state who would recognize the Moroccan autonomy plan as the credible [instead of a solution, editor’s note] and serious solution to settle the dispute over Western Sahara."

By warming up its relations with Rabat, Paris could renew several contracts that have expired, particularly those for water distribution, once won by Veolia and Suez, and land major projects such as the construction of desalination plants, the extension of the high-speed line (Moroccan TGV), the extension of the tramways of Rabat and Casablanca, and the renewal of the Royal Air Maroc (RAM) aircraft fleet.