Morocco’s imports of Turkish arms witnessed an unprecedented increase, during last September, as the value of what Morocco acquired of arms manufactured in Turkey amounted to 62 million US dollars, coinciding with the tense situation with Algeria, which had officially decided to sever its relationship with the Kingdom of Morocco in late August, and Algerian officials escalated the rhetoric against Rabat.
A report by Reuters stated that September is the month that Morocco spends the most on arms acquisition deals from Turkey, out of the total it spent in 2021, which amounted to 78.6 million US dollars.
According to the same source, Moroccan imports of Turkish weapons witnessed a significant increase in the year 2021 compared to the previous year 2020, when the value of the total amount of Turkish arms acquired by Morocco was 402 thousand dollars, which is likely that this acceleration towards armament is due to the tense regional conditions in front of the Algerian neighbor, and the constant threats from the separatist Polisario Front.
The month of September witnessed an escalation of tension between Morocco and Algeria and the continuation of Algerian accusations against Morocco of trying to threaten national security and carrying out conspiracies against Algeria. The latter decided in the same month to close its airspace to all Moroccan aircraft, whether military or civilian or any aircraft carrying the Moroccan flag.
These figures regarding arms deals from Turkey also indicate that Morocco is adopting a method of diversifying arms sources, along with the United States of America, which is still on the throne of the largest arms exporters to Morocco, and it is expected that Israel will join the list of arms suppliers to the Kingdom of Morocco in light of the resumption of relations between Rabat and Tel Aviv.
