M

orocco is aiming for deeper cooperation with Indonesia while at the same time seeking new opportunities by building a partnership with ASEAN.

The intentions were expressed by the Moroccan Secretary of State Mounia Boucetta, during a meeting with Indonesia’s Deputy Foreign Minister AM Fachir on Tuesday morning that she said was an opportunity for Morocco to submit its candidacy to be a sectoral direct partner with ASEAN member countries.

“Morocco is putting great importance on collaborating with different countries in Southeast Asia,” she told reporters at the Foreign Ministry. “We want to create real added value with
impacts on the population in this country.” She said ASEAN was an attractive market because
Morocco believes cooperating with an integrated economic community was important.
“Morocco would be the best partner as an African country,
promoting also development and sharing experience and expertise with a win-win approach,” she said.

Later in the afternoon, Boucetta visited the ASEAN Secretariat and met with Secretary-General Lim Jock Hoi.

Fachir said, concerning Morocco’s request, that there had to be more consultations with all ASEAN members to identify the potential sectors for cooperation.

“It is also important that Morocco already has a basis for this because it already has bilateral cooperation with five ASEAN countries,” he said. “We also thank Morocco, which supported Indonesia’s candidacy for the United Nations Security Council.”

Indonesia is seeking its fourth tenure on the Security Council as a non-permanent member for the 2019 to 2020 period. The last time Indonesia had a seat on it was in 2008. The election is be held in June by secret ballot and without nominations. According to the Security Council’s rules, 10 non-permanent seats rotate among the several regions. Only one is allocated for the Asia-Pacific.

Boucetta said the meeting was held to confirm Indonesia’s and Morocco’s good relations “and to enforce this cooperation and to cover many fields even in the economic, political and social issues.”

The close relations between Morocco and Indonesia was demonstrated by the appointment of Maj. Gen. Imam Edy Mulyono as the force commander the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara from August 2013 to September 2015.

AM Fachir said last year’s decrease in the volume of trade between the two countries had to be taken as a sign to speed up the ongoing Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) negotiations.

“We have seen a decrease in trade volumes from about US$150 [million] to about $110 million; that’s what pushed us to facilitate it,” he said, adding that there had to be more opportunities for businesses to increase trade.

He said he had requested that the time frame for making and implementing the agreement should be “as short as possible”.

Boucetta said that in the meeting they identified many sectors in which Indonesia and Morocco could work together to facilitate trade and investment.

A major Moroccan commodity Indonesia was also interested in was phosphate minerals. Morocco is the world’s third-largest producer of phosphates after the United States and China.