Spain Backs Morocco’s Maritime Border Delimitation, Calls for Dialogue

The House of Representatives had already shown the way, on January 22, by unanimously adopting two bills aimed at establishing the legal competence of Morocco over all of its maritime domain. For its part, the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs Arancha González Laya has defended "the right" of the Kingdom to carry out this delimitation, thus limiting the Spanish action to a "dialogue" with Morocco.

The head of Spanish diplomacy has also asked the Spanish deputies not to fall into "alarmism". According to Arancha González Laya, Morocco is "doing the same thing" as Spain, using international regulations to define its maritime borders.

As for the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, he had argued that the updating of the national legal arsenal relating to maritime spaces will serve to complete the process of establishing the legal sovereignty of the Kingdom over all of its maritime domains.

Minister Bourita did not fail to specify that this approach is likely to more precisely determine the maritime areas placed under the sovereignty and sovereign rights of the Kingdom. He also pointed out that the width of the borders is calculated from baseline, over 12 miles for the territorial sea, 24 miles for the contiguous zone, 200 miles for the exclusive economic zone and a maximum of 350 miles for the continental shelf.