Morocco's King Hosts Spanish PM

Morocco's King Mohammed VI meets with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares in Rabat.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez will visit Morocco, his office said, in a third official visit since the two nations in 2022 patched up a deep diplomatic dispute.

Sanchez will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares on the trip which "underlines the deep ties that unite the two countries."

"Morocco is a neighbor, friend, and strategic ally of Spain in all areas," his office added.

Spain is Morocco's main trading partner and they work together on issues including migration, the fight against Extremism and energy.

But relations soured in 2021 when Madrid allowed Brahim Ghali, leader of the Polisario Front which seeks independence for the territory of Western Sahara, to be treated for Covid-19 in a Spanish hospital.

Weeks later, more than 10,000 migrants surged into Spain's tiny Ceuta enclave as Moroccan border forces looked the other way, in an incident seen as seeking to punish Madrid.

Relations improved in 2022 when Spain reversed decades of neutrality on the Western Sahara conflict to back Morocco's autonomy plan for the region, a former Spanish colony that Morocco considers its own but where the Algeria-backed Polisario Front seeks to establish an independent state.

Sanchez, in office since 2018, visited Morocco in April 2022 to usher in a "new stage" in relations with Morocco's King Mohammed VI. He returned to the country in February 2023 for a bilateral summit.