King Mohammed VI Receives Foreign Envoys, French Ambassador Notably Absent

On Monday, King Mohammed VI received several foreign ambassadors who presented their credentials to him as plenipotentiary and extraordinary ambassadors of their countries in the kingdom, in the presence of Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad. Among them were Jesper Kammersgaard, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark, Cheikh Abdullah Bin Thamer Mohammed Thani Al Thani, Ambassador of the State of Qatar, Mohamed Iliassa Yahaya, Ambassador of the Union of the Comoros, José Renato Salazar Acosta, Ambassador of the Republic of Colombia, Mohamed Douhour Hersi, Ambassador of the Republic of Djibouti, Hideaki Kuramitsu, Ambassador of the Empire of Japan, Robert Dölger, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany and Vladimir Baybakov, Ambassador of the Russian Federation.

Christophe Lecourtier, the French ambassador to Rabat who took up his post in September 2022, was not received by the sovereign. Only a few Moroccan officials have so far received him. The French diplomat, who has assigned himself the mission of working for the thawing of the crisis between Morocco and France, will have a lot to do.

Relations between Rabat and Paris, which were no longer at their best, have cooled significantly due to the recent antics of Emmanuel Macron and his Foreign Minister, Catherine Colonna. France offered its aid to Morocco, but the latter only accepted the aid of the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Spain and the United Kingdom. They sent search and rescue teams to the kingdom. Paris seems unable to digest the refusal of its aid, and some French media have started criticizing the kingdom.