Morocco’s role in the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought China and Arab nations closer together through the China-Arab States Cooperation Forum and the mechanism of political parties’ dialogue as they take concrete steps to build a China-Arab community with a shared future, officials and experts said.
The ninth ministerial meeting of the forum rolled out specific steps for China and Arab nations to strengthen their strategic partnership toward the building of a community with a shared future in the new era.

The meeting, co-chaired by State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates Ayman Safadi, generated three documents as its outcomes－a joint statement of China and Arab nations in solidarity and cooperation against COVID-19, the Amman Declaration demonstrate countries’ mutual support for each other’s core interests and their determination to build a community with a shared future, and an action plan for their practical cooperation under the framework of the forum between 2020 and 2022.

The kingdom of Morocco was represented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation, and Moroccan Expatriates, Mr. Nasser Bourita who stressed the following:
– Morocco also sees China as a “reliable partner in bilateral relations”, recalling in this context the strong strategic partnership that links the Kingdom of Morocco with the People’s Republic of China.
– China represents a balance reason to support the peace track as a strategic choice to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and to reach a just, lasting and comprehensive solution that enables the Palestinian people to regain their legitimate rights and set up an independent, practical, and sovereign state with East Jerusalem as its capital and guarantees all people of the region to live in security, stability, and harmony.
– The Moroccan-Chinese cooperation has seen a distinct qualitative boom since the historic visit of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, to Beijing in May 2016, during which the “comprehensive strategic partnership” between the two countries was signed, as well as the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2017 about Morocco’s accession to the Belt and Road initiative, an initiative that has led to tangible results in cooperation relations between the two countries and which has enabled the Kingdom to rank second in terms of attracting Chinese investments in Africa with more than 80 major projects in various parts of the country.
– China is also considered a pivotal element to enhance the partnership with the countries of the South in general and the Arab countries in particular, adding in this context that “our aspiration today, after 16 years since the launch of this forum, is to move from the stage of consultation and dialogue to the stage of launching real programs and concrete initiatives that are consistent with our attempt to make peace, security, and development for our people and our region, according to the logic of win-win.
– Morocco hopes that the executive program 2020-2022 will form an effective executive framework for Arab-Chinese cooperation programs to give a strong impetus to the projects of this cooperation and to advance them towards promising and sustainable prospects.
– Strengthening the Arab-Chinese cooperation will join an important tributary that will be added to the other tributaries of the dialogue, cooperation, and solidarity that the Arab world has woven for decades with other partners, whether they are organizations, political or economic blocs.
– Looking forward to developing relations with the People’s Republic of China towards more cooperation in the fields related to sustainable development, productive investment of wealth, labor, and technology transfer, and that these strategic relations form the right framework for dedicating fruitful South-South cooperation, even exemplary.
– South-South cooperation was and remains a central axis of the foreign policy pursued by the Kingdom under the wise leadership of His Majesty King Mohammed VI.
– The Kingdom of Morocco, “given its strategic location, as a link between Africa, Europe, and the Arab world, is ready to harness all the available capabilities to give to the advancement of China-Arab relations and cooperation to broader horizons and higher and broader levels in all economic, commercial, cultural, and other fields, to serve the distinguished relations that link the Arab states to the People’s Republic of China and their friendly people, which are based on the principles of mutual appreciation, respect for territorial integrity, national sovereignty of states, and non-interference in internal affairs.”
– Arab-Chinese relations are always based on historical ties, based on mutual interest, mutual benefit, and real solidarity, and today they acquire greater importance and a deeper dimension due to two considerations, the first of which is related to the developments of the political and economic situation of both the Arab and Chinese parties, because of the conditions produced by the pandemic of Covid-19, and the repercussions It left and is still at the economic and social level, which gives special importance to the need to join efforts to face this global pandemic.
– The place and the active role of the People’s Republic of China at the global level, whether at the political, economic, cultural, technological, or other levels.
– The multiplicity of challenges presented today makes the Arab-Chinese Forum, in its current version, an opportunity to exchange views and ideas, coordinate positions, and develop a vision for future Chinese-Arab action.
The ninth ministerial meeting of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum is considered an effective strategic platform for intensive Chinese-Arab communication, to share experiences, and to reach collective understandings within participants of Arab countries and China, within the core of its reality and socio-political-economic and cultural development in general, and with the aim of launching the proper means of understanding In a new world that is peaceful, loving, understanding, and continuous without interruption, to coordinate and take proper measures and mechanisms to carry out it, in the interest of all our people, within the framework of the spirit of mutual respect and mutual learning, towards building a common future society for China and the Arab countries in the new era, and a wish for the great renewal of the Chinese and Arab people.

Hanane Thamik is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Information Management at Wuhan University.
Source: CGTN Africa