Nueva cooperación entre Marruecos y Etiopía
Delegations from Morocco paid a visit to Ethiopia, giving a glimpse of the good relations between the two countries. There, in Addis Ababa, the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, announced that both the Alawi and Ethiopian countries have established a new road map in which they will hold a joint commission. The aim of this meeting is to reach cooperation agreements, as well as bilateral projects in which the two nations will participate jointly.
Morocco's visit coincided with the 35th ordinary session of the African Union Summit, where Bourita represented both the Moroccan government and King Mohammed VI. During a press conference, the minister revealed that talks have begun with Demeke Mekonnen, the Ethiopian foreign minister. According to him, plans are underway to hold a meeting of the Moroccan-Ethiopian Joint Commission, which will examine and review all the projects on which the two nations have jointly collaborated following the last visit of King Mohammed VI. Another of the points to be addressed is to identify the reasons why some plans have not been carried out.
The Moroccan sovereign visited the capital of Ethiopia in 2016, where he began to establish several diplomatic ties that significantly improved the relationship of the two countries, being subsequently the foundation of several plans carried out after his return to Morocco. The Moroccan minister added that, following this, "it is important to maintain the need to involve private and public actors to advance and improve relations between Addis Ababa and Rabat".
Bourita, after recalling this, also highlighted the projects carried out over the last six years between Morocco and Ethiopia. Among them is the creation of a fertiliser factory on Ethiopian territory, carried out by the Moroccan OCP Group, in collaboration with the Ethiopian government. To start implementing the plan, the company and the government signed a Joint Development Agreement in 2021, formalising their relationship and starting to develop the business, which is expected to yield good profits.
The aim of this project jointly devised by the two nations is to strengthen food security in the East African region, where Ethiopia is located. Thus, two African natural resources would be combined in an idea that is intended to bring large and good economic benefits to both Morocco and Ethiopia.
The estimated investment is 2.4 billion dollars, and when the project is almost finished and in its first production phase, it will be able to provide 2.5 million tonnes of fertiliser. Then, in the last and second phase of the project, when completed, it could reach a production capacity of almost four million tonnes per year. With this, Ethiopia is expected to be self-sufficient by 2030, making savings in its economy and becoming a major exporter of fertiliser.
On the other hand, the two nations have been seen to collaborate in creating sustainable projects in line with the goals of various global organisations in the fight for the environment, such as the United Nations (UN) Agenda 2030. Aziz Rabbah, Minister of Energy, Mines and Environment met via videoconference with Sileshi Bekele, Ethiopian Minister of Water and Energy, with the aim of reaching future agreements to ensure general access to sustainable energy in less developed countries, as well as in the two countries themselves and even elsewhere on the African continent.
Morocco and Ethiopia were also involved, along with Kenya and Senegal, in the creation of a UN-sponsored African nuclear security project. The four countries aim to ensure the protection of the environment and citizens, while spreading the use of safe nuclear energy throughout the region.