Meeting with His Excellency Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Living Abroad of the Kingdom of Morocco

Rabat - FAO Director-General QU Dongyu met today in Rabat with His Excellency Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Living Abroad of the Kingdom of Morocco on the margins of the 33rd Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa (ARC33).

The Minister welcomed the Director-General in Rabat and thanked him for the long-standing cooperation between Morocco and FAO. He also conveyed his gratitude to FAO and to fellow African Members for having entrusted Morocco to host the ARC33.

The Minister commended the Director-General for FAO’s leadership on food security issues, as well as South-South and Triangular Cooperation initiatives involving Morocco, FAO and other African countries. He further stated that these were priorities for the government of Morocco and His Majesty the King, as the country has broad knowledge and experience on agrifood systems, which it wants to share with other African countries. The Minister also informed about Morocco’s Blue Economy Initiative (BEI) to promote economic cooperation between African countries located on the Atlantic Ocean, and requested FAO’s support to further structure and operationalize the BEI.

The Director-General thanked the Minister for the support extended FAO in the execution of its mandate of striving to end hunger and transform agrifood systems to ensure better agricultural production and a better life for all. He commended Morocco for the leadership in agrifood systems transformation in Africa and for the excellent organization of the ARC33. He further reaffirmed FAO’s commitment to support Morocco in all areas of cooperation as requested.

They both agreed to continue to work together to strengthen and lead agrifood systems transformation in Morocco and in Africa, in particular through triangular cooperation.