Trust, that's the key
Morocco and Spain return to normality with a joint communiqué in which they express good intentions with working teams to tackle key aspects such as the opening of the maritime and land borders in Ceuta and Melilla, a new customs office in Ceuta which means recognising the border, control of migratory flows with the essential financial support of the European Union, the Atlantic waters and coasts. This includes the Canary Islands, industrial, agricultural, fishing, scientific, university, tourism and even sporting cooperation.
The strategic collaboration in security and anti-terrorism has been maintained and guaranteed over and above political crises due to its great importance for the two neighbouring countries. The new unprecedented stage, as King Mohammed VI said in August last year, involves Spain's support for Morocco's proposal for broad autonomy for the Sahara under its sovereignty. Spain joins France, Germany, the US and the Emirates, among many others, thanks to the effective work of Moroccan diplomacy and an international situation that has turned international geostrategy and geopolitics upside down due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The role played by the United States between Madrid and Rabat has been decisive in the thorniest aspects. It is now up to the UN and the UN Secretary General's Special Envoy for the Sahara, Staffan de Mistura, to be able to bring all parties back to the negotiating table in Geneva to reach a solution to the conflict after 46 years for thousands of Saharawis living in subhuman conditions in Tindouf.
The Polisario Front is reluctant to face a new era that is inevitable with the resolution of the conflict. It is suspending its contacts with the Spanish government, a decision of no consequence because there are now more representatives among the Sahrawi people, such as Sahrawis for Peace or the Sahrawi Association for the Defence of Human Rights, that should be taken into account in the negotiations to reach a solution to the conflict within the United Nations.
A good solution for all in the Sahara is essential for the security and stability of North Africa and Europe, as well as for Algeria and Morocco to recover relations and jointly confront the terrorist threats in the Sahel, in coordination with the EU, and to avoid Russian interference in Mali.
For the Spanish government, it will be essential for Morocco to fulfil its commitments on customs in Ceuta and Melilla as a demonstration of its renunciation of unilateral actions in these two Spanish cities, as well as on the establishment of territorial waters in the Canary Islands by negotiation.
The step has been taken to end the crisis, and now it is time to carry out all the work set out in the joint Spanish-Moroccan communiqué. Mutual trust is the key.