French, Moroccan Foreign Ministers Discuss Coordination To Cope With COVID-19

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 09th April, 2021) French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has held talks on bilateral cooperation and issues of common concern, including coordination aimed at curbing the coronavirus pandemic, with his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, the French Foreign Ministry said.

"The minister [Le Drian] referred to the very dense bilateral relations between France and Morocco and the issues common to our two countries, in particular the consequences of the health crisis, the coordination between our two countries to deal with it as well as migration issues. The minister praised the quality of security cooperation between our two countries that we regularly have the opportunity to observe, particularly in the fight against terrorism," the ministry said in a statement released late on Thursday.

The diplomats also addressed the situation in Libya, challenges faced by Africa's Sahel, and the situation in Western Sahara.

The French minister reiterated the support of Paris for the peaceful and lasting political solution in Western Sahara and called for the "rapid appointment of a new special envoy of the UN secretary-general" as part of diplomatic efforts.

Le Drian also confirmed that Morocco was a strategically important partner of the EU, the statement concluded.

Since the 1970s, Morocco and the Polisario Front movement backed by Algeria have fought with each other over control of Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony that was transferred under control of Morocco and Mauritania in 1973. Three years later, the Polisario Front established the partially recognized Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) on a very small part of the disputed territory. Morocco, which controls much of Western Sahara, has been pushing for the region's autonomy within its territory, while the United Nations and SADR have been in favor of a referendum on its self-determination.