The U.S. official, who held political consultations with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Abroad, Nasser Bourita, and co-chaired with him a session of the Morocco-U.S. Strategic Dialogue on regional political issues, “thanked” Morocco, a stable security-exporting partner, for its leadership of the Global Counterterrorism Forum and for its sustaining role in the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.
Sherman mentioned, in this regard, the contribution of the Kingdom as co-chair of the Africa Focus Group of the Coalition; a think tank aimed at adopting a forward-looking and strategic approach to the threat posed by ISIS, and as a host for the upcoming Ministerial Meeting of the Coalition in May, said a joint statement issued at the end of this session of the Strategic Dialogue between the two countries.
The Deputy Secretary of State expressed appreciation for Morocco’s continued support to the African Lion multilateral military exercises.
The Minister and the Deputy Secretary expressed “their intent to continue strong cooperation to defeat terrorist groups, including AQIM [Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb] and ISIS.”
On this occasion, the two sides discussed a range of regional issues, including the Sahel, Libya, and Ukraine. In this regard, Bourita and Sherman reaffirmed the importance of respecting the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and national unity of all the Member States of the United Nations.
Concerning Libya, the Deputy Secretary of State welcomed the positive role and important contribution of Morocco to support the UN’s efforts on the political process and hosting the Libyan dialogue.
Both sides reaffirmed their strong commitment to the sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity, and national unity of Libya and the priority for organizing national elections in the near term.
The Moroccan-U.S. strategic dialogue on regional political issues provided an opportunity for U.S. and Moroccan diplomacy to review a range of issues of common interest, including security and human rights cooperation, and to discuss regional issues related to the Sahel, Libya and Ukraine.
This dialogue is part of the regular strategic consultations between the Kingdom of Morocco and the United States of America.
Source: Agency Morocaine De Presse