Spanish Foreign Minister to Attend Anti-ISIS Coalition Meeting in Morocco

The head of Spanish diplomacy will be alongside his peers from several countries, including the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, to attend this important meeting which will see the presence of the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, diplomatic sources told Europa Press, without specifying whether the Spanish minister will take the opportunity of his trip to Marrakech to hold a bilateral meeting with his Moroccan counterpart.

The coalition was created in September 2014 to fight the Islamic State/Daesh on all fronts. It currently has 84 members, including countries and international organizations. The coalition is already carrying out military actions against the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, and is now focusing its attention and efforts on Africa due to the active presence of the Islamic State in the Sahel, the Lake Chad basin or Mozambique.

To read: Spanish Foreign Minister to Visit Morocco, Bolstering Bilateral Ties

To recall, José Manuel Albares was to meet Nasser Bourita on April 1 in Rabat to prepare Pedro Sanchez’s visit in the following days. But the trip was canceled the day before, after the telephone conversation between King Mohammed VI and the President of the Spanish government. A week later, Pedro Sanchez flew to Rabat, accompanied by his Minister of Foreign Affairs. A decisive visit that laid the foundations for the new stage in the relationship between the two countries, after more than a year of diplomatic crisis.

To read: article 92180

In the coming weeks, the two governments should finalize the negotiations for the reopening of the land borders in Ceuta and Melilla and the restoration of the free movement of people and goods "in an orderly manner". They are also already engaged in the preparations for Operation Marhaba, canceled in 2020 and 2021 for health reasons, and are also working to reactivate the "working group on the delimitation of maritime spaces on the Atlantic facade" and to strengthen migration cooperation.