RABAT: French President Emmanuel Macron arrives Monday in Morocco, where he is expected to meet with the North African kingdom\u2019s leaders and discuss partnerships regarding trade, climate change and immigration.
\nDuring the president\u2019s three-day visit to Rabat, he is scheduled to meet with King Mohammed VI and Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and address Morocco\u2019s Parliament.
\nIt comes months after Macron changed France\u2019s longstanding public position and backed Morocco\u2019s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara. The move endeared the country to Morocco and alienated it from Algeria, which hosts refugee camps governed by the pro-independence Polisario Front and has long pushed for a UN-organized referendum to solve the conflict.
\nIn the days leading up to the visit, Moroccan publications lauded the \u201cwarm reunion\u201d and a \u201cnew honeymoon\u201d between the two countries while French flags were hung throughout Rabat.
\nFrance and Morocco have historically partnered on issues ranging from counterterrorism to Western Sahara. Morocco is the top destination for French investment in Africa and France is Morocco\u2019s top trade partner. Morocco imports French cereals, renewable energy infrastructure like turbines and weapons. Morocco exports goods to France including tomatoes, cars and airplane parts.
\nMoroccans are among the largest foreign-born communities in France, where North African immigrants are a key political constituency and a focal point of debates about the roles of Islam and immigration in French society. In recent months, France\u2019s new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has pushed for the country to take a hard-line approach toward immigration and seek deals with countries like Morocco to better prevent would-be migrants from crossing into Europe.
\nOn Macron\u2019s last visit to Morocco, he and King Mohammed VI inaugurated Al Boraq, Africa\u2019s first high-speed rail line, made possible by French financing and trains manufactured by the French firm Alstrom.
\nDespite close ties, relations have at times been fragile between France and Morocco, which was a French protectorate from 1912 to 1956. In 2021, Morocco suspended consular relations France momentarily reduced the number of visas offered to Moroccans in protest of its refusal to provide documents needed to deport people who migrated to France without authorization.
\nRelations between the two countries soured further that year when a 2021 report revealed Morocco\u2019s security services had used Israeli spyware to infiltrate the devices of activists and politicians, including Macron. Morocco denied and sued over the allegations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RABAT: French President Emmanuel Macron arrives Monday in Morocco, where he is expected to meet with the North African kingdom\u2019s leaders and discuss partnerships regarding trade, climate change and immigration. During the president\u2019s three-day visit to Rabat, he is scheduled to meet with King Mohammed VI and Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and address Morocco\u2019s Parliament. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":439969,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-439952","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n