Morocco-Panama: Key Points of the Joint Declaration

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Mr. Nasser Bourita and his counterpart from Panama, Ms. Janaina Tewaney Mencomo proceeded, on Januray, 30, 2024 to the signing of a Joint Declaration, following their bilateral meeting by videoconference.

In this Joint Declaration, the Republic of Panama and the Kingdom of Morocco reiterated their will to consolidate their excellent bilateral relations, which have experienced significant development in recent years.

The two countries underlined that their cooperation ties are based on the principles of peaceful coexistence, democracy and good governance, solidarity, transparency, mutual respect, respect for human rights and international humanitarian law, as well as the non-use of unilateral sanctions.

Hailing the positive progress in their bilateral and multilateral relations, Panama and Morocco agreed to further promote these ties with a view to implementing a roadmap reflecting the two countries’ determination to act jointly on the international stage to serve their common interests.

In this respect, they emphasized the importance of multilateral cooperation in intensifying efforts in areas of common interest, such as trade, poverty and hunger reduction, education, health and sustainable development, including access to energy, water, food and fertilizer, as well as mitigation and adaptation to climate change impacts.

The two countries underlined the need to achieve the SDGs in a global and integrated manner, in particular through the eradication of poverty and the fight against climate change impacts, while endeavoring to promote sustainable land use and water management, as well as biodiversity conservation.

Rabat and Panama also reaffirmed the importance of people-to-people exchanges in strengthening mutual understanding, friendship and cooperation in communication, culture, education, sports, arts, youth, civil society and economy.

On this occasion, Morocco praised Panama’s role as an air, maritime and land logistics hub for Latin America and the Caribbean, stressing that its strategic geographic location can serve as an access point to the region for Moroccan industry.

Regarding migration, both countries highlighted the efforts made in particular within the framework of the Marrakech Pact and the Rabat Process, as well as the Los Angeles Declaration.

In this respect, they reaffirmed their common commitment to dynamic mobility allowing safe, fluid and orderly movement of people.

Concerning environmental preservation, both parties stressed the importance of cooperation in projects to decarbonize the economy, which offers great potential for investors.

Morocco and Panama, which agreed to continue their exchanges and endeavor to consolidate their relations, underlined that the international order is based essentially on respect for territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of States, as well as the faithful implementation of commitments emerging from treaties and other sources of international law.

Concerning the Sahara issue, the Republic of Panama voiced its support for the Autonomy Initiative presented by Morocco in 2007, as “the only basis for a just and lasting solution” to the regional dispute over the Moroccan Sahara, committing to “define its future action and take a position.

Panama considers that the United Nations remain the appropriate mechanism to bring together all stakeholders to seek the political solution that the Security Council calls for.

In this respect, it reiterated the importance of advancing the political process at the international level, taking into account, in a “serious and respectful” manner, Security Council resolutions to identify points of convergence.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Kingdom of Morocco – Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates.