Morocco and Mauritania have the firm intention of building a solid partnership that brings together a series of objectives that are as ambitious as they are increasingly realistic. A few weeks ago it was the visit of the Mauritanian Foreign Minister, Mohamed Salem Ould Marzouk, to Morocco, and now it is Rachid Talbi El Alami, President of the Moroccan House of Representatives, who has travelled to Nouakchott to announce the launch of a Moroccan-Mauritanian parliamentary forum.

A New Forum to Strengthen Morocco-Mauritania Ties

Talbi El Alami met his Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Ould Bilal, in a meeting which served to announce a Morocco-Mauritania parliamentary forum aimed at "strengthening relations between the two countries". The meeting was also attended by a Moroccan parliamentary delegation and the Moroccan Ambassador to Mauritania, Hamid Chabar.

The idea is to hold this forum on an annual basis, alternately in the respective capitals of each country. They want leaders from various sectors, from politics to business, to be able to take part in these meetings. And within the political spectrum, they want representatives from various political groups, as was the case on the trip to Mauritania.

On this occasion, Mohamed Ghayat of the National Grouping of Independents, Nourdin Moudian of the Istiqlal Group for Unity and Egalitarianism, Abderrahim Chahid of the Socialist Group, Chaoui Belassa of the Democratic and Social Constitutional Group, Rachid Hammouni of the Progress and Socialism Group, and Abdellah Bouanou of the Justice and Development Group were part of the Moroccan delegation in Nouakchott.

Mauritania continues to move closer to Morocco to the detriment of Algeria

Rabat has repeatedly praised the good work being done by the Mauritanian administration. At the last meeting with his Mauritanian counterpart, Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita said that Nouakchott "has become a necessary pole of stability in the Sahel region and in the West African region". And in this sense, Morocco wants to improve access to the Atlantic ports that will boost the economic sector of the Sahelian countries.

The positive trend in the Alawi kingdom is a major attraction for Mauritania, which is ignoring Algerian voices aimed at distancing it from Moroccan plans. Nonetheless, Nouakchott's priority seems clear, and that is to bet on a long and lasting partnership with Rabat.

Algeria is not in the best of times, and the crisis it is experiencing both in terms of the country's political situation and the external image of Abdelmajdid Tebboune's government are not a good guarantee. His intention to reach the Atlantic from Tindouf seems less realistic by the day. Moreover, the fact that Morocco supports important countries in the region, such as Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad, is one more reason to move closer to Morocco.

An opportunity to improve customs conditions

A little over a month ago, several Moroccan trucks were blocked at the border with Mauritania at the Guerguerat crossing. The increase in customs duties imposed by Mauritania affected the import of fruit and vegetables from Morocco. Mauritanian protectionism led to a blockade resulting from the increase in customs duties, although the renewed closeness with Morocco could significantly improve this situation.

Increasingly closer relations between the two countries have led to growing optimism over this issue, which initially caused great concern. In fact, one of the main objectives of the Moroccan-Moroccan parliamentary forum is to improve relations between the two countries in terms of "trade and investment, industry and tourism, housing, environment and sustainable development". For this reason, all parties hope that the progress being made in the diplomatic field will be extended to other sectors in the short term.