Under the impetus of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, Africa is taking its maritime destiny into its own hands and repositioning itself as a central player in this Atlantic space, conceived as a place for transforming production and reflecting on standards, emphasized French expert in Euro-African relations Guillaume Chaban-Delmas on Tuesday.
As an interface between Europe and Africa, the Kingdom is undergoing a strategic repositioning in an Atlantic space envisioned as a vector for the continent’s integration, Mr. Chaban-Delmas stated in a declaration to MAP, in response to the message addressed by the Sovereign to the participants at the “Africa for the Ocean” Summit, co-chaired on Monday in Nice by Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa, Representative of His Majesty the King, and French President H.E.M. Emmanuel Macron.
Behind this strategic reinterpretation of the Kingdom’s maritime role lie significant economic, political, and legal stakes for the continent’s future, the French expert explained.
Noting that international maritime trade is still organized according to a logic inherited from the colonial period, Mr. Chaban-Delmas pointed out that the vision put forward by the Kingdom, under the leadership of His Majesty the King, “engages a dynamic of affirming Africa as a sovereign power around an Atlantic axis that carries a new balance in the structuring of global exchanges.”
According to the perspective defined by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, he explained, the Atlantic Ocean is envisioned as a space for South-South cooperation and the creation of regional value chains around redefined maritime routes serving African interests – particularly in the Sahel.
The project for the Dakhla Atlantic port complex, he continued, is fully aligned with this regional dynamic.
The complex – which includes an integrated industrial site linked to the port where raw materials will be transformed before being exported to African and European partners – aims to integrate into a dense logistical network connecting Morocco to Sahel countries, which have been marginalized in global exchanges in the current configuration, he emphasized, noting that the integration of the Sahel into regional value chains appears to be a prerequisite for addressing the issues plaguing this region beset by terrorism.
He concluded that “the Atlantic must be a space for co-constructing a legal framework that fully affirms the sovereignty of the African continent.”
MAP