The Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans living abroad, Nasser Bourita, told Rabat on Monday that Morocco believes in the ability of southern countries to renew itself and accelerate their progress.
In a speech read in his name during the 3rd forum of the South-South parliamentary dialogue, Mr. Bourita stressed that it has become necessary for these countries to turn to mutual cooperation and to weave various forms of strategic and solidarity partnerships.
He said this forum is part of the kingdom’s membership, under the guidance of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, to all initiatives aimed at consolidating the bonds of cooperation between the countries of the South.
It is also a question, he said, of capitalizing on the first edition of the forum held in Rabat three years ago, in illustration of the political will of the southern countries to lay solid bases of the process of southern southern dialogue and to achieve its objectives through the strengthening of parliamentary diplomatic action.
This event constitutes an important step in the process of implementing the objectives of the declaration “Rabat, capital of South-South cooperation”, thus embodying a collective desire to build and strengthen the bridges of rapprochement and joint action, in a regional and international context requiring increased coordination, the promotion of solidarity and confidence as levers to build balanced and sustainable partnerships.
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Hence the central role of parliamentary diplomacy as a fertile space for reflection, coordination, consultation and exchange of experiences with a view to South-South cooperation in the face of common challenges, he said.
Mr. Bourita praised, in this regard, the relevant choice of the theme “The interregional and intercontinental dialogues in the countries of the South, an essential lever to face the new challenges of international cooperation and guarantee peace, security, stability and common development”, as well as the importance of the recommendations and results which will result in the service of co-development in Africa, Asia and in the Latin America and Latin America and Arab.
The Minister has highlighted the particular interest of this forum, marked by the participation of representatives of 13 unions and parliamentary assemblies and 25 countries from three continents, countries rich in potential for common development and economic, technological and innovation transformation, thus offering real opportunities for improving the standard of living of their populations.
Morocco, continued the Minister, is convinced that the current and future challenges faced by the peoples of the South require the adoption of an approach based on the principle of co-development, taking into account the needs and specificities of each country and the requirements for enhancing their national efforts within the framework of a participative approach on the regional or territorial scale.
-In this spirit, the kingdom under the leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI launched several initiatives emanating from the South and intended for the countries of the South, at the forefront of which are the process of the Atlantic African States, the royal initiative aimed at facilitating the access of the Sahel countries to the Atlantic Ocean, as well as the Nigeria-Maroc pipeline project.
These initiatives reflect the constant and firm engagement of Morocco in favor of solidarity and effective South-South cooperation, while reflecting the vision of the kingdom for the treatment of southern issues through concrete and realistic initiatives.
In this sense, he recalled the orientation consecrated by His Majesty King Mohammed VI in the royal discourse addressed to the 29th Summit of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Addis Ababa, stressing that it is fundamental that “African States are set for realistic and pragmatic objectives, based on the real priorities of the continent. Africa no longer needs ideological slogans, it needs concrete and resolved actions in the fields of peace, security and human development. ”
The Minister said that, under the leadership of the sovereign, the kingdom launched a series of developmental reforms and projects of development which have enabled him to accumulate an important capital of experiences and good practices and to contribute effectively to the process of interregional development.
He noted that Morocco’s experience in strategic sectors such as renewable energies, sustainable management of natural resources, new technologies and anti-terrorist struggle gives the Kingdom a particular position on both regional and African scale.
This experience also opens up vast prospects for a concrete dialogue and cooperation with friendly countries and brothers, especially in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Arab world, in accordance with the royal vision which gives the South-South partnership a central place, based on solidarity, mutual respect, common interest and win-win partnership, he said.
Furthermore, Mr. Bourita said that the state of instability and uncertainty marking the current international context should lead parliamentarians to assume their political and moral responsibility in order to listen to the fears and expectations of their fellow citizens, especially in countries engaged in the democratic process as a choice promoting the role of institutions as a main actor in terms of consecration of cooperation between peoples and global.
The holding of the 3rd edition of the South-South parliamentary forum illustrates the commitment to a promising process of cooperation between the countries of the South in a spirit of sustainability capable of making it a framework for collective reflection and coordination of common efforts and initiatives.
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