Algeria, Tunisia and Libya are laying the foundation for the creation of a Union of the Maghreb without Morocco, a project initiated by Algiers to replace the Union of the Arab Maghreb that has existed since 1994, the year of the closure of the border between the kingdom and its eastern neighbor are in difficulties. After approving the principle of a “quarterly Maghreb meeting” in Algiers in March, the leaders of the three countries met in Tunis on Monday. After this “first consultative meeting”, they agreed to form “joint working groups” to “coordinate efforts”, according to a joint statement circulated by the Tunisian press.
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The initiative for a new regional rapprochement “does not aim to be a new Union of the Arab Maghreb,” Hasni Abidi, director of the Center for Studies and Research of the Arab and Mediterranean World, told the French newspaper Les Echos. “It is a new framework to respond to the concerns of the three countries facing the same difficulties: the migration route from the Sahel, the security vacuum in the Sahel, and important economic interests, especially Sonatrach’s investments [het Algerijnse oliebedrijf] in Libya.”
Meanwhile, Morocco is pursuing a policy of cooperation on all fronts with an Algeria increasingly isolated on the international stage, a Tunisia in dire financial difficulties and a Libya plagued by chronic instability. “For Algiers and Tunis, Morocco’s priorities lie elsewhere,” Hasni Abidi emphasizes. “And it is true that Morocco has defined its foreign policy differently: by maintaining very good relations with Israel – which excludes it from any discussion within the Maghreb -, as well as with Spain and the United States, by significantly improving its relationship with France , and by proposing an initiative to the countries of the Sahel to gain access to the Atlantic Ocean.” An opinion shared by Victor Lequillerier, economist at Bpifrance.
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“Trade within the Maghreb is quite limited. […] Morocco is not so much aiming to isolate itself from its neighbors in the Maghreb, but rather a strategy aimed at acquiring market shares”: primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa, “which has strong growth potential, and where Morocco has its increasing investments in finance, phosphate, telecommunications and real estate,” he analyzes. And in general, Morocco is seeking greater integration with the rest of the world “through the implementation of a strategy aimed at increasing its integration into global value chains “.
