Category Archives: Morocco

Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia

Russia’s foreign minister tours North Africa as anger toward the West swells across the region

This photo provided by the Tunisia presidency shows Tunisian President Kais Saied, right, shaking hands with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Thursday Dec. 21, 2023 in Tunis. Russia is working to deepen political and economic ties and spread its narrative about wars in Ukraine and Gaza. (Slim Abid/Tunisian Presidency via AP)

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) — Not far from where Russia’s Foreign Minister is holding meetings in Tunisia on Thursday, large green billboards advertising Russia Today, a Kremlin-backed media outlet, have been recently erected.

The ads are yet another indicator that Russia continues to expand its presence in North Africa as support for western powers across the Arab World fades amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.

With deep trade ties and large diaspora populations in western Europe, North African countries have long maintained close, albeit complicated, relations with the European Union.

Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia also enjoy close relations with the United States.

But since October the region has been convulsed by protests about Israel’s latest war with Hamas, including in Tunis, where demonstrators have rallied in front of the United States and French embassies, chanting for a free Palestine.

Arab Barometer, a non-partisan research firm, published data last week that suggested the United States’ popularity fell 30 percentage points in the weeks after the Israel-Hamas war began. It found France’s image also suffered.

“Tunisians’ views on the world shifted in ways that rarely happen even over the course of a few years. There is no other issue across the Arab world to which people feel so individually and emotionally connected,” Arab Barometer researchers concluded, based on 2,406 interviews.

In the vacuum created by western powers’ diminishing popularity, Moscow has doubled down on efforts to strengthen its ties to North Africa and spread its narrative about issues including Ukraine and Gaza. Russian officials are exchanging visits with North African leaders, seeking new trade agreements and signing joint memorandums that cover issues ranging from Ukraine to Syria.

“It has become obvious that some external forces are not averse to using the next escalation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in their own interest, to ignite the fire of a regional war,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at this week’s Arab-Russian Cooperation Forum in Marrakech, alluding to the United States.

Marrakech was the first destination on Lavrov’s tour through North Africa. He arrived in Tunis on Wednesday evening to meet with President Kais Saied and Tunisia’s foreign minister, who visited Moscow in September, when the two countries announced a new grain deal.

Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Tunisia received roughly half of its total wheat imports from Ukraine.

While lamenting pressure from countries that isolate Russia, Lavrov announced new efforts to expand energy and agriculture trade with North Africa.

He also contrasted Russia’s positions with those of the United States in the Middle East.

Source: AP, 21st December 2023

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Morocco

€739 million of foreign investment in renewable energy

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The Moroccan government announces a solar and wind rush. Close to 8 billion dirhams, or 739 million euros, of foreign investment from Western powers and the Middle East are flowing in to support projects in the renewable energy sector.

“For us, Morocco is the gateway to Africa,” said Abdulla Falah Abdulla Al-Dosari, Qatar’s ambassador to Morocco. Present in Casablanca on October 24, 2018, at the opening of the Elec Expo Forum, the Qatari diplomat said that companies in his country are seeking to establish joint ventures with major Moroccan groups in the field of energy.

Although Qatar’s expertise in hydrocarbons is much more recognised, it is one of the many foreign powers (the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Emirates) whose companies will release an investment of 108 billion Moroccan dirhams, or about 10 billion euros, in various sectors, including electricity, which alone receives an envelope of 739 million euros (8 billion Moroccan dirhams). According to Aziz Rabbah, Moroccan Minister of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development, these investments will also create thousands of jobs.

Morocco, which wishes to join the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has a new and attractive element to offer through these investments. The subregion has a market of 1.2 billion people, more than half of whom do not have access to electricity. Morocco’s ambitions will therefore contribute to transforming the constraints into investment opportunities for reducing the electricity deficit in ECOWAS member countries, and become a power pool for West Africa.
Morocco wants to produce 7 times the amount of wind energy installed on the continent

The sectors targeted by foreign Moroccan joint ventures are: solar, wind and energy efficiency. For example, the additional wind energy needs that remain to be installed are estimated at 7 GW, whereas the continent can only produce 1 GW today. “We have the opportunity to take up this challenge,” said Abderrahim El Hafidi, Director General of the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (Onee).

Morocco has refined its energy strategy to better meet the challenges in terms of supply security, access to energy and environmental protection. Target: increase the share of renewable energy to 42% of installed capacity by 2020 and to 52% by 2030. With that in mind, the national programmes will involve an additional capacity for electricity production from renewable sources of about 10,100 MW, including 4,560 MW from solar, 4,200 MW from wind and 1,330 MW from water, which will reduce the Kingdom’s energy dependence from 94% to less than 82% in 2030.

Boris Ngounou

Source: Afrik21
The Moroccan government announces a solar and wind rush. Close to 8 billion dirhams, or 739 million euros, of foreign investment from Western powers and the Middle East are flowing in to support projects in the renewable energy sector.

“For us, Morocco is the gateway to Africa,” said Abdulla Falah Abdulla Al-Dosari, Qatar’s ambassador to Morocco. Present in Casablanca on October 24, 2018, at the opening of the Elec Expo Forum, the Qatari diplomat said that companies in his country are seeking to establish joint ventures with major Moroccan groups in the field of energy.

Although Qatar’s expertise in hydrocarbons is much more recognised, it is one of the many foreign powers (the United States, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Saudi Arabia, Emirates) whose companies will release an investment of 108 billion Moroccan dirhams, or about 10 billion euros, in various sectors, including electricity, which alone receives an envelope of 739 million euros (8 billion Moroccan dirhams). According to Aziz Rabbah, Moroccan Minister of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development, these investments will also create thousands of jobs.

Morocco, which wishes to join the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has a new and attractive element to offer through these investments. The subregion has a market of 1.2 billion people, more than half of whom do not have access to electricity. Morocco’s ambitions will therefore contribute to transforming the constraints into investment opportunities for reducing the electricity deficit in ECOWAS member countries, and become a power pool for West Africa.
Morocco wants to produce 7 times the amount of wind energy installed on the continent

The sectors targeted by foreign Moroccan joint ventures are: solar, wind and energy efficiency. For example, the additional wind energy needs that remain to be installed are estimated at 7 GW, whereas the continent can only produce 1 GW today. “We have the opportunity to take up this challenge,” said Abderrahim El Hafidi, Director General of the National Office of Electricity and Drinking Water (Onee).

Morocco has refined its energy strategy to better meet the challenges in terms of supply security, access to energy and environmental protection. Target: increase the share of renewable energy to 42% of installed capacity by 2020 and to 52% by 2030. With that in mind, the national programmes will involve an additional capacity for electricity production from renewable sources of about 10,100 MW, including 4,560 MW from solar, 4,200 MW from wind and 1,330 MW from water, which will reduce the Kingdom’s energy dependence from 94% to less than 82% in 2030.

Boris Ngounou

Source: Afrik21

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