FM Currently Visiting Washington D.C. to Boost Strategic Partnership between Morocco, U.S.

The Moroccan top diplomat’s visit is part of the ongoing consultations aimed at consolidating the strategic partnership between Morocco and the United States and to consult on various regional and international issues.

During this visit, Bourita will have a series of talks at the White House and the State Department, including with the head of American diplomacy, Antony Blinken. Under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, and U.S. President Joe Biden, the partnership between Rabat and Washington D.C. has grown significantly in recent years in all areas.

The Minister’s visit will be an opportunity to consolidate this strong and longstanding bilateral strategic partnership between the two countries in a variety of areas and to discuss international and regional issues of mutual interest, particularly in the Middle East and Africa.

This special visit confirms the dynamic of regular exchanges between Morocco and the United States, which has intensified considerably over the past two years, with the visit to the Kingdom of many senior American officials.

At the political dialogue level, last year was notably marked by the visit of Secretary of State Antony Blinken to Rabat in March 2022. « We support His Majesty the King’s ambitious reform agenda to strengthen Moroccan institutions, » the US Secretary of State said on the occasion.

Last year also saw the visit of Blinken’s assistant, Wendy Sherman, during the same month, then of the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, in May 2022, and more recently, in January, Michèle Sisson, Assistant Under-Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs.

In addition, the CEO of the Millenium Challenge Corporation made two visits to Morocco last week and previously, in July 2022, headed a major US economic delegation. In December 2022, the MENA Coordinator at the White House National Security Council, Brett McGurk, also visited Rabat for high-level consultations.

The security consultations were part of the same dynamic of significant reinforcement, especially through the very first visit to Morocco by a Chief of Staff of the American Armies, General Mark Milley, last February.

Visits in 2022 by the Director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, and the Head of the FBI, Christopher Wray, served to diversify and deepen the ever-growing multi-dimensional security partnership between the two countries.

Exchanges with the US Congress have also been intense, especially over the past three months, with the January visit of the Parliamentary Group on the Abraham Accords to the US Senate, then in February, a delegation of influential senators led by the president of the Foreign Affairs Committee and during March, of the Hispanic Parliamentary Group in the House of Representatives of the American Congress.

The latter visited Dakhla, marking the first visit of American elected officials to the Southern Provinces since the recognition by the United States of Morocco’s sovereignty over its Sahara in December 2020.