Rabat and Madrid are preparing to convene the 13th Morocco–Spain High-Level Meeting on December 4, an event expected to address key political and economic issues shaping bilateral relations. According to a statement released Thursday by the Moroccan Prime Minister’s Office, this year’s session will take place in the Spanish capital and will be preceded, on December 3, by the Morocco–Spain Economic Forum, indicating that economic cooperation will feature prominently in the discussions.
The meeting comes at a sensitive moment marked by significant political and economic developments. Chief among them is UN Security Council Resolution 2797, adopted in October, which calls on all stakeholders in the Sahara dispute — a territory formerly administered by Spain — to negotiate on the basis of Morocco’s autonomy initiative. The talks also take place as Spain witnesses growing domestic debate over the new Morocco–EU trade agreement, which extends preferential treatment to agricultural products originating from Morocco’s southern provinces.
Speaking to Assahifa, Spanish affairs expert Abdelhamid El Bajouki said the upcoming meeting reflects the continued coordination between Rabat and Madrid, particularly since the major diplomatic breakthrough of 2022, when Spain formally endorsed Morocco’s autonomy initiative as “the most serious, realistic and credible” solution to the Sahara dispute.
El Bajouki noted that the recent adoption of Resolution 2797 has injected “new momentum” into Morocco’s relations with several strategic partners, including Spain. He added that forthcoming negotiations on the Sahara issue will be largely shaped by the autonomy proposal, currently under refinement in Rabat. Spain, he argued, offers institutional models that Morocco may draw upon while preserving its national specificities.
The analyst further explained that the Madrid meeting coincides with rising tensions among Spanish agricultural groups, who have expressed strong opposition to the new Morocco–EU trade framework and have politicized the issue by linking it to the Sahara question. He said the high-level meeting may serve as an opportunity for both governments to address these concerns and seek compromise-based solutions.
Spanish farmers’ associations have intensified their criticism of the agreement, arguing that recognizing agricultural goods from the Sahara as Moroccan exports undermines their competitiveness. El Bajouki stated that these groups have given the dispute “a political dimension,” signaling that resolving the issue will require diplomatic engagement at the highest level.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament adopted the final version of the revised agricultural trade agreement between Morocco and the European Commission. The accord explicitly recognizes products originating from Morocco’s southern regions as part of Moroccan exports — a move viewed in Rabat as a consolidation of European acknowledgment of Morocco’s territorial integrity within commercial frameworks.
The vote saw attempts by pro-Polisario factions, particularly from the European left, fail to introduce amendments referring to the region as “Western Sahara.” Their proposals did not secure the required legal threshold, resulting in the agreement’s approval in its original form, which identifies the origin of goods by referencing Morocco’s 12 administrative regions, including Guelmim–Oued Noun, Laâyoune–Sakia El Hamra, and Dakhla–Oued Ed-Dahab.
With both political and economic files at a critical juncture, the December 4 meeting in Madrid is expected to reinforce the strategic partnership between the two neighbors—addressing domestic concerns in Spain while consolidating the diplomatic alignment achieved in recent years.
