French Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade Franck Riester will be on a working visit to Morocco on April 4-5, following a primary agreement on green lighting French projects in the Moroccan Sahara, as per news website Africa Intelligence and well-informed sources.
French financiers Bpifrance and Proparco have obtained the agreement of the Quai d’Orsay to extend their intended course of action to the border of Mauritania (and the Moroccan Sahara), which is a first given the foggy French position on Morocco’s sovereignty over the area.
Riester comes to Morocco with a full agenda. He is scheduled to meet his Moroccan Minister of Industry Ryad Mezzour, before holding a working session with the Minister Delegate in charge of Investment, Convergence and Evaluation of Public Policies, Mohcine Jazouli.
Other figures will follow Riester. They will include Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau, and Minister of Interior Gérald Darmanin. According to Jeune Afrique, all of the aforementioned officials plan to visit by end of April, with the hopes of giving momentum to ties between the two countries.
The French Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Morocco (CFCIM) had organized the “Morocco-French Economic Days” held in early 2024 in Nantes, foreshadowing Paris’s desire to advance its interests in the Sahara through the angle of economic partnership.
The event was attended by three Regional Investment Centers (CRI): Guelmim-Oued-Noun, Laâyoune-Sakia El Hamra, and Dakhla Oued Eddahab.
Paris Ambassador to Rabat Christophe Lecourtier visited Guelmim (230 km north of the Sahara) in person to inaugurate the new CFCIM branch.
Security for the Olympic (July 26-August 11) and Paralympic (August 28-September 8) Games will be on the agenda for discussions between Darmanin and personnel from Morocco’s security department.
This is the second visit to the Kingdom by a minister in the new Attal government, following that of Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné, which paved the way for a possible détente between Rabat and Paris, after a series of recent acute diplomatic crises.