"After fifteen years of investment in West and Central Africa, Morocco has made evident the credibility of its action: it is the first African investor in West Africa, its companies are very present in Central Africa , Morocco is also very present at the political and religious level, "said Bourita, noting that the Kingdom is on the eve of a transition to a higher level with a continental policy.

Today  East Africa, tomorrow it will be Southern Africa. The second aspect of this new level is that Morocco wants to be part of the global issues that will shape the Africa of tomorrow, namely the issue of migration, the fight against terrorism and climate change, "he said.

The Deputy Minister further stated that Morocco's African policy has matured, noting that the Kingdom has found that the African Union is out of step with the positions of the countries.

"Thirty four  African countries do not recognize SADR. It is normal for Morocco to defend its own positions from within the organization. It could not be done before. All this had been going on for some time. It is neither tactical nor conjunctural, but the culmination of a process, "he explained.

Mr. Bourita affirmed in this interview that His Majesty King Mohammed VI was clear in his speech in Dakar, specifying that the return to the AU does not change the fundamentals of Morocco on the Sahara.

"Morocco will work for a match between the positions of the organization, the requirements of international legality and the positions of the file itself,"  said Mr Bourita, considering that the empty chair does not give the whole And that the ideological and undemocratic Africa of 1984 is different today thanks to a  more pragmatic generation free from past ideological considerations.

 Mr Bourita further sais that the AU reinstatement procedure requires that the chair of the Commission of the organization receives the request and then collect the reactions of the member countries. When the threshold of 28 states is reached, the Country is admitted.

"For South Sudan, the process took three weeks between the submission of the application and the final notification of admission. For Morocco, for some odd reason, the request was put in a drawer for more than a month, "he regreted , recalling the telephone conversation between HM the King and the President-in-Office of the Union Idriss Déby, to draw his attention to the delay in the reintegration of Morocco into the AU.

"That there is already a month of delay in the process is for us unanderstandable. It is a first signal that there are manipulations, that African countries are not allowed to express their position. Morocco is at home in Africa, "he insisted.

Concerning the choice of the Sovereign to deliver the speech commemorating the 41st anniversary of the Green March in Dakar, Mr Bourita said that this decision is  a proof of the strong ties between Morocco and Senegal, a country Political stable, economically performant, socially stable ansd last but not least,   it has always been a defensor of the Moroccan position on its sovereignity.

MAP(translation)