Spanish Minister of Interior Fernando Grande-Marlaska, currently on a working visit to Rabat, met his Moroccan counterpart Abdelouafi Laftit on Friday.
The two officials discussed bilateral security cooperation across various domains, including counterterrorism, combating illegal immigration and drug trafficking, and collaboration in addressing transborder crime.
Spain’s Interior Minister, Grande-Marlaska, described Morocco as Spain’s main strategic partner in domestic matters.
During their meeting, Grande-Marlaska thanked Laftit for Morocco’s “commitment and effort” in the shared challenge of illegal immigration and in the fight against organized human trafficking rings.
The two ministers have pledged to continue the Spanish-Moroccan model of bilateral preventive collaboration, which constitutes–in the opinion of Grande-Marlaska–the most relevant and developed example of practical cooperation between Europe and Africa, and a key model at a time of increased migratory pressure on the southern border of the EU and Morocco.
The two parties highlighted the decrease of more than 41% in irregular arrivals to Sebta and Melilla.
Spain and Morocco participated in 14 anti-terrorist operations that culminated in more than 80 arrests. The last joint operation carried out between the Spanish authorities and Morocco’s territory surveillance services (DGST) took place last December 19 in Nador and Melilla, and ended with the dismantling of a network dedicated to the recruitment and indoctrination of jihadists.
This marks the second official visit by a Spanish minister to the Kingdom since the establishment of Pedro Sanchez’s new government, and the first international trip of Grande-Marlaska since his appointment last November.
Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares paid an official visit to Morocco on Dec 14, 2023, during which he reaffirmed his country’s unwavering stance on the Sahara issue.