HM King Mohammed VI Has Always Highly Prioritized Africa in Morocco’s Foreign Policy - Gov't Head

Moscow - His Majesty King Mohammed VI has always highly prioritized Africa in the Kingdom of Morocco’s foreign policy, said on Thursday in Moscow the Head of Government, Fatima Ezzahra El Mansouri, who is representing His Majesty the King in the third Russia-Africa Summit.

This Royal conviction is reflected in structuring initiatives of unprecedented scale, namely the Atlantic African States Initiative, the Royal Initiative to enable Sahel countries' access to the Atlantic Ocean, which focuses on opening up this region through modern infrastructure, and the Nigeria-Morocco African-Atlantic Gas Pipeline, which anchors integration, co-development, and stability across the entire West African region, El Mansouri emphasized during the Summit's plenary session.

To this end, she maintained, His Majesty King Mohammed VI remains convinced that Africa needs all its international partners, noting that each cooperation model brings its own added value, provided it fits into an overall complementarity, remains based on mutual respect between the continent's countries and their partners, and is aimed at active cooperation and concrete actions.

In this regard, she said that "the Russia-Africa Partnership is reaching a milestone: transitioning from planning to action, in order to allow our platform to express its full potential," noting that the Action Plans adopted in Sochi and St. Petersburg laid the groundwork.

"Today, it is necessary to adapt them equally to the priorities of the African continent: food security, energy security, industrialization, and technology transfer," she said, specifying that the Russian-African partnership would benefit from focusing its efforts on these areas for the coming years.

She also pointed out that Morocco, in accordance with the Vision of His Majesty the King, remains committed to this partnership and reiterates its determination, through this Summit, to help launch concrete and innovative areas of cooperation, adding that the Kingdom "stands ready to support this initiative with the full strength of its experience, within the framework of the shared values that govern our relations."

"Is there still a need to emphasize that it is not only Africa that needs the rest of the world, but the rest of the world also has a growing need for Africa," she stressed, adding that Africa draws strength from its natural resources, its human capital, its geographical positioning, as well as its historical, cultural, and political wealth, which gives it an expanding role.

Seven years after Sochi and three years after St. Petersburg, this Summit marks a milestone for the Russia-Africa Partnership, which has already recorded significant achievements, namely institutionalizing meetings, consolidating political dialogue, adopting action plans, opening avenues of cooperation in food security, energy, infrastructure, health, education, training, and technology transfer, and allowing trade between Russia and the African continent to cross the threshold of $27.7 billion in 2025, El Mansouri recalled.

"This third Summit is not only an opportunity to commend an honorable track record, but it is above all an occasion to identify the next steps," El Mansouri stressed, noting that it is important to emphasize that as the Partnership's institutional framework solidifies, the expectations of African nations strengthen, particularly regarding food security, energy, development, and economic sovereignty.

Speaking on relations between Morocco and Russia, the Head of Government noted that the ties between the two countries are built on centuries of friendly relations and have been considerably strengthened since the conclusion of the Strategic Partnership in 2002, followed by the Deepened Strategic Partnership during the Royal Visit to Moscow in 2016.

In this sense, she said that the Kingdom currently ranks among Russia's top three economic partners in Africa, recalling that trade exchanges reached $630 million in 2025 and Moroccan exports increased by 18%, alongside more than 7,000 Moroccan students having pursued their studies in Russia in 2024-2025.

"Despite a complex geopolitical context, we can rejoice in maintaining our trade at appreciable levels," she welcomed.

Other areas of cooperation, particularly in the fields of energy, science, and technology, also deserve to be further explored, El Mansouri pointed out, adding that this shared desire to deepen "our political dialogue and explore new horizons of cooperation was illustrated by the recent creation of a Working Committee between our two Ministries of Foreign Affairs, whose first meeting was held in September 2026."

(MAP)