France ready to finance the electricity link between Morocco and Western Sahara
The French Minister of Economy and Finance, Bruno Le Maire, pleaded Friday April 26 in Rabat for the consolidation of energy cooperation with Morocco, indicating that France was ready to participate in the financing of a Moroccan project in the territory of Western Sahara, contested by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR).
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| Bruno Le Maire, French Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty. |
| Photo: AFP/VNA/CVN |
“You are going to produce energy in the region of Dakhla (Western Sahara), you are going to need it in the large metropolis of Casablanca, we must build electrical networks to transport this energy. I confirm to you that we are ready to participate in the financing of this infrastructure“, indicated Bruno Le Maire during a Morocco-France business forum in Rabat.
During a meeting with his Moroccan counterpart Nadia Fettah, the French minister also proposed “cooperation in the nuclear field, with small or medium-sized reactors” in Morocco which does not have such power plants for energy production.
For her part, Ms. Fettah indicated that the energy project “perfectly represents the vision we have of this renewed partnership“.
At the beginning of April, the French Minister for Foreign Trade Franck Riester, visiting Casablanca, declared that Proparco, a subsidiary of the French Development Agency (AFD) dedicated to the private sector, could contribute to the financing of a high voltage line between Dakhla (south of Western Sahara) and Casablanca.
Western Sahara has been the subject of a long-standing international dispute for several decades. Its independence was claimed by the Polisario Front, created in the mid-1970s, which, after the withdrawal of the Spanish colonizers in 1975, proclaimed the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) and began an armed struggle with the support of the Algeria.
Hostilities continued in the conflict zone until 1991, when a United Nations peacekeeping mission was deployed to end them. Despite a number of peace initiatives by the international community, the conflict is still not over due to diametrically opposed positions.
Morocco considers Western Sahara to be an integral part of its territory and only grants it broad autonomy within the country. Since June 2007, Morocco and the Polisario Front have organized four negotiation sessions, all unsuccessful.
AFP-TASS/VNA/CVN
