Spain's new prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, was to seek to deepen bilateral cooperation, particularly in the context of dealing with immigration issues and fighting terrorism, when he visited Morocco yesterday on his first foreign trip since taking office.
Socialist Zapatero, the surprise winner of a March 14 general election which followed in the wake of the Madrid train bombings believed the work of Moroccan extremists and which killed 191 people, would hold talks with King Mohamed VI and Moroccan Prime Minister Driss Jettou in Casablanca.
The city was itself the target of a bomb blast last May in which 45 people were killed, including four Spaniards and 12 suicide bombers.
Spanish authorities believe the Madrid bombers had links to the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group (GICM) deemed to be behind the earlier attack.
In an interview with Friday's edition of El Mundo daily, Zapatero called for "respect and dialogue" with Spain's southern neighbor, the two nations separated by the narrow Strait of Gibraltar but brought together by the pressing issues of terrorism and immigration to Europe via Morocco.
Ties between the two countries were strained under Zapatero's conservative predecessor Jose Maria Aznar and the summer of 2002 saw a spat over a small disputed island -- Perejil in Spanish and known to Moroccans as Leila.
US mediation helped resolve that standoff but Zapatero said he did not want outside involvement getting between Madrid and Rabat in future dealings between the two governments.
The longer-standing confrontation over the status of the former Spanish colony of Western Sahara, to which Morocco has a longstanding claim, is likely not to feature in Zapatero's five-and-a-half-hour visit yesterday, with Spain hoping Morocco will accept a UN-brokered settlement.
The Spanish north African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla are also unlikely to be discussed.
"In principle, Ceuta and Melilla are not a problem and aside from occasional affirmations Morocco respects ... Spain on this issue," according to Zapatero.
In choosing Morocco as his first foreign destination as prime minister Zapatero is not only carrying on a recent Spanish tradition but showing Rabat that Spain wants to deepen ties and recognize that the links between them are of strategic importance for Afro-European relations as a whole.
First deputy prime minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said the meeting would be a coming together of nations whose relations had often consisted of "reproach and unnecessary tension."
Zapatero and King Mohamed had a lengthy telephone conversation days after the former's election success in which the Moroccan monarch congratulated the Spanish leader on his win and passed on condolences for the March 11 attacks, the worst terrorist outrage Spain has known.
Earlier this week, the king also said he hoped to see "the inauguration of a new era" in bilateral relations during a conversation with Spain's King Juan Carlos.
In his interview with El Mundo, Zapatero said "given that the economic and democratic development of Morocco is in our interest," it was "fundamental" for Spain to give its north African neighbor economic and commercial help, investment and political cooperation.
While in Casablanca Zapatero will inaugurate a commemorative plaque to the victims of last May's blasts in the city.
Asian perspectives of the US have shifted from a country once perceived as a force of “moral legitimacy” to something akin to “a landlord seeking rent,” Singaporean Minister for Defence Ng Eng Hen (黃永宏) said on the sidelines of an international security meeting. Ng said in a round-table discussion at the Munich Security Conference in Germany that assumptions undertaken in the years after the end of World War II have fundamentally changed. One example is that from the time of former US president John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address more than 60 years ago, the image of the US was of a country
‘UNUSUAL EVENT’: The Australian defense minister said that the Chinese navy task group was entitled to be where it was, but Australia would be watching it closely The Australian and New Zealand militaries were monitoring three Chinese warships moving unusually far south along Australia’s east coast on an unknown mission, officials said yesterday. The Australian government a week ago said that the warships had traveled through Southeast Asia and the Coral Sea, and were approaching northeast Australia. Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles yesterday said that the Chinese ships — the Hengyang naval frigate, the Zunyi cruiser and the Weishanhu replenishment vessel — were “off the east coast of Australia.” Defense officials did not respond to a request for comment on a Financial Times report that the task group from
BLIND COST CUTTING: A DOGE push to lay off 2,000 energy department workers resulted in hundreds of staff at a nuclear security agency being fired — then ‘unfired’ US President Donald Trump’s administration has halted the firings of hundreds of federal employees who were tasked with working on the nation’s nuclear weapons programs, in an about-face that has left workers confused and experts cautioning that the Department of Government Efficiency’s (DOGE’s) blind cost cutting would put communities at risk. Three US officials who spoke to The Associated Press said up to 350 employees at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) were abruptly laid off late on Thursday, with some losing access to e-mail before they’d learned they were fired, only to try to enter their offices on Friday morning
STEADFAST DART: The six-week exercise, which involves about 10,000 troops from nine nations, focuses on rapid deployment scenarios and multidomain operations NATO is testing its ability to rapidly deploy across eastern Europe — without direct US assistance — as Washington shifts its approach toward European defense and the war in Ukraine. The six-week Steadfast Dart 2025 exercises across Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are taking place as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches the three-year mark. They involve about 10,000 troops from nine nations and represent the largest NATO operation planned this year. The US absence from the exercises comes as European nations scramble to build greater military self-sufficiency over their concerns about the commitment of US President Donald Trump’s administration to common defense and
RSS