Participants in the annual meeting of the Mediterranean Study and Research Group (GERM), held on Saturday in Rabat, underlined the importance of the Initiative of His Majesty King Mohammed VI to promote access for countries in the Sahel to the Atlantic Ocean and its role in promoting African integration, while anticipating the prospects and challenges linked to the economic, social and maritime development of the continent, in light of current Atlantic dynamism.
This conclave held under the theme “The dynamics of African countries bordering the Atlantic: challenges and perspectives” was an opportunity to discuss the ways and means of development of these countries, as well as to highlight the role played by the Kingdom in this dynamism through the Royal Initiative for the Atlantic which aims to enable the African Atlantic coast to become a space of peace and shared prosperity.
Thus, the participants in this event examined the geopolitical reality and the governance issues linked to this initiative, capable of making the South Atlantic area a lever for collective development of African countries overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
In a speech for the occasion, the president of the Group, Habib El Malki, indicated that this meeting focuses on the geostrategic dynamics underway in the southern flank of the Mediterranean region, focusing, more precisely, on the vast region made up of countries Africans bordering the Atlantic.
In this sense, Habib El Malki noted that this initiative, supported by Morocco, aims to promote a strategic alliance between the African countries of the Atlantic coast, adding that this appears today all the more appropriate as it can contribute significantly to the achievement of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the construction of an “Africa that is integrated, prosperous, peaceful and representing a dynamic force on the world stage”.
On the commercial level, he maintained, the countries of the Atlantic coast of Africa can, through their joint action, negotiate better conditions of access to markets and intensify trade with the major growth poles to internationally, noting that the geographical positioning of the African Atlantic coast opposite the American continent, on the one hand, and on the southern flank of Europe, on the other hand, gives it an important advantage for the development of trade flows between these three major regions.
For his part, the director of the Center for Arab Research in Nigeria, Abdul Baaqi Muhammad El Khidru, welcomed the Royal Initiative for the Atlantic which reflects the seriousness of Moroccan policies towards Africa, stressing that the different initiatives launched by Morocco in favor of the continent reflect its continued commitment to serving Africa.
Likewise, he recalled that Morocco’s political will, expressed by the opening of outlets to the Sahel countries, reaffirms its determination to collaborate with the rest of the Sahel countries, with a view to establishing strategic partnerships in favor of region, believing that “the economy constitutes a lever for the sustainability of relations between peoples”.
For his part, the Secretary General of the Mediterranean Study and Research Group, Houdaifa Ameziane, noted that this meeting is an opportunity to highlight the Royal Atlantic Initiative and explore the prospects of the dynamic launched by Morocco with a view to allowing the Sahel countries to open up to maritime ports as part of sustainable African integration.
Mr. Houdaifa also noted that the Atlantic Initiative is a platform that will make it possible to capitalize on the great cooperation opportunities offered by Morocco to contain economic and security risks, while achieving integral development that ensures prosperity. shared.
As for researcher Mohamed Chakoundi, he noted that the pioneering role played by Morocco, through the Royal Initiative to promote access of Sahelian countries to the Atlantic Ocean, goes beyond the national dimension to be part of a regional dimension. which should ensure the development and well-being of African populations.
This Initiative constitutes a milestone in the process of promoting the complementarity of African economies and collective intelligence, which will make it possible to establish new governance, develop collective projects and jointly manage challenges and crises, continued Mr. Chakaundi.
This annual meeting, attended by experts and representatives of the Moroccan and African academic world, focused on a series of themes, notably “The South Atlantic in global geopolitics”, moderated by Professor Driss Khrouz, “Morocco in the emergence of a new African collective organization” and “The challenges and prospects of development in the South Atlantic”.
