Ceuta: Morocco Puts the Record Straight with Spain
It was time to put the record straight on relations between Morocco and its Spanish neighbor, with which it has traditionally maintained good ties that have deepened significantly over the past four years. The Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs was keen to recall the key stages in Moroccan-Spanish relations and the positive turning point reached in 2022. That year, King Mohammed VI received Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. It is worth recalling that Spain, after the United States, played a pivotal role in affirming Moroccan sovereignty over the Sahara and in supporting the view that the only viable option is broad autonomy within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty.
This is precisely what the Moroccan Foreign Ministry’s statement sought to underline, and several passages are worth reproducing. It stressed that “the Kingdom of Morocco has sovereignly chosen to engage, with the Kingdom of Spain, in a relationship of geographical good-neighborliness, political understanding, economic partnership and security cooperation.” This orientation, the statement added, “found its fullest expression in the Joint Declaration of 7 April 2022,” following the meeting between the Moroccan monarch and the head of the Spanish government.
The statement recalled that “this Declaration ushered in a new stage in relations, based on the essential principles of mutual respect, reciprocal trust, permanent dialogue and the ambition to build a mutually beneficial partnership.” Thanks to this approach, “the two countries succeeded, with determination, in cultivating what unites them and containing their differences so as to address them with serenity and respect, far from any attempt to impose faits accomplis.”
As a result, “tangible results were achieved, notably at the economic level (Spain is Morocco’s leading economic partner, while the Kingdom is Spain’s second-largest trading partner outside the European Union), and in security cooperation (lives were saved and terrorist and criminal networks dismantled, often at the cost of human and material losses suffered by Moroccan forces).”
The Moroccan Foreign Ministry also stressed that “migration cooperation has always been coordinated and effective,” adding that the regrettable events that took place in Ceuta last July “certainly require an in-depth examination in order to determine their circumstances, identify interference, denounce manipulation and, above all, ensure that they do not happen again.”
The statement continued: “Today, far from polemics and rhetoric, common sense and a discourse of truth require that direct questions be asked: Why maintain the indictment against Morocco when no data, fact or report establishes any involvement by the Moroccan authorities? Why have irregular migrants not been returned, even though the Moroccan government formally committed itself to readmitting them? Why are unaccompanied minors being kept away from their families when Morocco has insistently called for their return?” It added that “the answer to these questions should not be sought in Morocco, but among the Spanish actors concerned.”
From the Moroccan perspective, this is about setting the record straight, away from political polemics and maneuvers that achieve nothing and can only damage relations between two countries bound by numerous shared interests. That is what Morocco has done through the statement issued by the Kingdom’s Foreign Ministry, which reaffirms Morocco’s commitment to its partnership with Spain while rejecting political point-scoring over migration.
Morocco was also keen to make several points clear. Rabat is pushing back against accusatory narratives surrounding migration while continuing to place its faith in the strength of its partnership with Madrid. It was particularly significant in recent days that Pedro Sánchez stated there was no evidence proving Moroccan involvement in encouraging migration toward Ceuta, a Spanish colony located on Moroccan territory.
Morocco is raising practical and legitimate questions about migration while remaining committed to dialogue with Spain. Rabat is also calling for the Moroccan-Spanish partnership to be insulated from political one-upmanship. Put simply, Morocco refuses to be used as a tool in Spain’s domestic political disputes and continues to invest in its partnership with Madrid. It has no intention of being drawn into Spain’s internal political rivalries.
These are the main points Morocco is emphasizing, and they strengthen its position at a time when it is no secret that the entry of some seventy thousand Moroccan citizens into Ceuta on July 30 came about under circumstances for which Spain is considered partly responsible, particularly because of a ruling by the Spanish Supreme Court requiring different treatment for anyone entering Ceuta by sea.
In short, Rabat is dismantling the narratives used against it and calling instead for a responsible approach to migration, free from political point-scoring. Morocco is defending the record of its cooperation with Spain against domestic political wrangling over migration, an issue that is testing the resilience of the Moroccan-Spanish partnership.
Morocco is seeking to further develop its relationship with Spain. It is well aware that certain known actors are trying to fish in troubled waters by turning migration into a Moroccan-Spanish crisis, a crisis both countries would be better off avoiding.
Morocco also knows that the status of the two Spanish colonies of Ceuta and Melilla is not a natural one. Such a situation can only be addressed with wisdom and patience. Wisdom and patience have always characterized Moroccan diplomacy, which recovered the Saharan provinces through a peaceful demonstration, the Green March, more than half a century ago, but which also knew how to defend by force, when compelled to do so, what diplomacy had achieved.