Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is on an official visit to Morocco, to amend ties following a deep diplomatic crisis that ensued between the two countries.
“The better the relations are between Morocco and Spain, the better it is for Spain, for Morocco, for Europe, for business, and for the citizens of both countries,” Mr Sanchez said at an economic forum in Rabat.
He and a dozen Spanish ministers are set to meet top members of the Moroccan government on Thursday.
They are expected to sign some 24 deals including Spanish investments in the kingdom and on partnerships in areas from culture and education to desalination and rail transport, Spanish government sources said.
This visit comes amid disputes over migration and territory and after Madrid reversed decades of neutrality on the Western Sahara conflict to back Morocco’s position.
Also Spain’s North African enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta – which both border Morocco – have long been magnets for people fleeing violence and poverty across Africa, seeking refuge via the continent’s only land frontiers with the European Union.
Tensions were strained last year after the deaths of at least 23 sub-Saharan migrants who were attempting to cross from Morocco to the Spanish enclave of Melilla.
Source: BBC