Spain Sells $30 Million in Arms to Morocco Amid Diplomatic Thaw

In the first half of the year, in the midst of the diplomatic crisis, as well as in the second half after the normalization of relations, Spain did not stop delivering arms to Morocco. During this period, the Spanish government approved four licenses for the export of defense and dual-use materials destined for the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces for a total value of 30 million euros, reports Vozpopuli.

According to the report of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism on arms exports in the first half of 2022, 1,181 arms sales licenses were approved for a total value of 4.192 billion euros. In detail, Spain sold arms for 187.3 million to France, 167.5 million to the United Kingdom, 126.7 million to Turkey and 91.2 million to Germany.

In the category of non-NATO and European Union countries, apart from Morocco, it sold 302.2 million to Saudi Arabia, 209 million to Ukraine, 68.8 million to Singapore, 45.3 million to Malaysia, 33.3 million to Oman and 31.5 million to Mali.

In crisis since April 2021 due to the reception at the Logroño hospital of the Polisario Front leader, Brahim Ghali, relations between Madrid and Rabat were only restored in March 2022, after Spain’s support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for the Sahara. The two countries will hold their high-level meeting in Rabat on February 1 and 2, which will be attended by Sanchez and a dozen ministers, none of whom are from Podemos.