La directora del CNI se reúne con su homólogo en Rabat para potenciar la cooperación

The director of Spain's National Intelligence Centre (CNI), Esperanza Casteleiro, met today in Rabat with her Moroccan counterpart, Abdelatif Hammouchi, to boost cooperation in fields such as the fight against illegal migration networks, terrorism and drug trafficking.

The Directorate General of Territorial Surveillance (DGST, Moroccan intelligence) announced the visit on Thursday in a statement, in which it details that the meeting took place this morning in the Moroccan capital.

According to the statement, the meeting between the heads of the two intelligence services took place within the framework of Casteleiro's visit to Morocco, who arrived in the Maghreb country "at the head of a high-level security delegation with the aim of supporting and enhancing Moroccan-Spanish cooperation in various security fields of common interest".

In the meeting between Casteleiro and Hammouchi, the note continues, they reviewed the levels and forms of cooperation in security matters existing between the two countries and the mechanisms for developing and strengthening this cooperation.

All of this "to keep up with the strategic partnership between the two countries" and "protect common security in light of the growing security challenges at the international and regional levels".

According to the DGST, the meeting reflects "the importance of Moroccan-Spanish cooperation in the field of security and intelligence, especially in light of the acceleration of challenges related to the regional situation".

It refers in particular to the fight against terrorism and extremism, cybercrime and "other forms of transnational organised crime, including illegal migration networks and drug trafficking".

Casteleiro's visit comes at a time of attuned relations between Morocco and Spain, after the latter supported last March the proposal for autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty of the territory of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony in dispute between Morocco and the Polisario Front.

This recognition was followed by a visit by the Spanish president, Pedro Sánchez, and his Foreign and Interior Ministers, José Manuel Albares and Fernando Grande Marlaska, as well as the reactivation of working groups between the two countries in several areas.