President Hollande: “Does it rain often in Marocco?” – King Mohammed VI: “Never.” Artwork by Placide http://soyons-serieux.fr/author/eric/
“The message is simple: France trusts Morocco.”
In Rabat, the Flambé circus has just come to town. President Hollande and no less than 9 ministers visited the Moroccan capital this week (Thursday and Friday). Hollande used the trip to lay fairly extravagant praise on King Mohammed VI and, in particular, the “decisive steps” towards democracy allegedly made in the past three years.
How worthy the king is of such praise- and the consensus in the French press seems to be, not very– is a topic for another post ; our subject today is- why did Hollande feel the need to make it?
Acknowledging Morocco’s acquiescence in allowing French planes bound for Mali to overfly its airspace is certainly a consideration, but the primary reasons behind president Hollande’s visit are the same as they’ve always been for La France in the Royaume (and North Africa more generally)- economic.
Detailed footage of Hollande’s visit.
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“Morocco is no longer a developing country, but an emerging State with excellent educational institutes, powerful businesses, perfectly integrated into the regional market.” Francois Hollande
“Perfectly intergrated into the regional market” or not, Morocco’s leading trading partner is France, as the destination of nearly a third of the former’s exports. Commercial trade between the two countries reached €8 billion this year and France is also Morocco’s top foreign investor at €16 billion.
Source: Les Echoes
Significantly, French aid to Morocco has risen enormously in the past year: France’s development aid agency, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) has pledged to provide €831.3 million, up from €380 million in 2011 and €174 million in 2010.
If we compare this with AFD aid to Mali over the same period, we see how highly the France’s prizes its special relationship with Morocco (as well as perhaps how little coordination there is between AFD and the rest of the government?).
| AFD to Mali | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 |
| Total | 39.5 | 90.1 | 56.8 |
Source: AFD
No less than 60 of France’s leading corporate bosses travelled with Hollande to assist in keeping the country’s superior economic position.
France’s relationship with Morocco is its closest in North Africa- the ties between the country are significant. At a human level, there are 30,000 Moroccan students in France– the largest group of foreign students ; the total Moroccan population in the country is registered at 800,000. In Morocco, the French community numbers 30,000, and there are thousands of French educational and cultural institutions.
The trip is in large part intended to re-affirm that Marocco remains France’s principal ally in the Maghreb, of particular importance after Hollande’s landmark trip to Algeria. This visit to Morocco is yet another sign that Paris is working urgently to energize its foreign policy firmly in the direction of the Maghreb.
Source: DG Trésor français
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