Political tides in Africa are shifting: Britain must be clear who its friends are

Yahoo

03-06-2025

While the world's attention has understandably been focussed on events in Ukraine and Gaza, the Foreign Secretary's recent visit to Morocco saw Britain seize the initiative on a diplomatic issue that has been neglected by the international community for nearly half a century; that of the status of Western Sahara, under administration by Morocco since 1975, but whose sovereignty over the region has been disputed by the Algerian-backed Polisario Front, sometimes violently, for decades. This example of British diplomatic engagement is particularly significant in the context of the new Strategic Defence Review, and the British Government's stated aim of enhancing national security through economic growth.
This vast territory of more than 100,000 square miles is home to 565,000 people – a population roughly the size of Leeds, spread across an area bigger than the United Kingdom, although largely concentrated in the town of Laayoune, the regional capital, and Dakhla, the largest and fastest growing container port on the east Atlantic coast. Morocco has invested heavily and imaginatively in the Western Sahara, providing tens of thousands of new jobs, and the prospect of many more to come, yet its full economic development has been held back by a frozen territorial dispute, which has contributed to a deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Tindouf refugee camps in Algeria.
Under an encouragingly wide-ranging partnership agreement signed this week between London and Rabat, the UK has, for the first time, acknowledged the autonomy plan proposed by Morocco as the most credible, viable and pragmatic basis for a lasting peace in the Western Sahara. The autonomy plan, first presented to the United Nations in 2007, represents the only credible, lasting solution for peace in the Western Sahara. Under its provisions, an autonomous region would be established within the Moroccan State, with Morocco taking responsibility for defence and foreign affairs, but with local control over law enforcement, taxation, infrastructure, economic development, cultural affairs and the environment.
By accepting the broad principles of the autonomy plan, UK diplomacy at last moves into line with other key western allies including France, Spain and the United States, shifts the dial at the UN Security Council and within the General Assembly and lays the ground for a definitive, permanent resolution of the dispute. Such a resolution is in the best interests of the people of the Western Sahara, and it is by far the best hope of bringing prosperity, and economic and human development to that region, and wider.
UK support for the Moroccan autonomy plan, in conjunction with a comprehensive range of other cultural and economic initiatives of great mutual benefit, seems to be firmly in line with the Foreign Secretary's declared diplomatic approach of 'progressive realism'. It demonstrates a recognition by the FCDO that the political tides in Africa are shifting once again, and that the UK needs to be clear-sighted about who its friends are, which countries can be trusted and reliable partners, and which countries are offering opportunities for the continent's potential and solutions to its challenges.
In this respect, Morocco has proved to be a bulwark against terrorism, extremism, serious crime, illegal migration and the destabilising activities of Russia's and Iran's proxies in sub-Saharan Africa – and the autonomy plan offers further, exciting economic opportunity and potential. It is security, stability and prosperity that will help address the humanitarian issues of the refugee camps, undermine the poisonous appeal of extremism and slow migration, and offer hope. Those that oppose this move, with an insistence on perpetuating a deadlock, have their own vested interests that offer nothing to the people of the region.
Supporting stability in the Sahara is politically and diplomatically the right thing to do, but our support for Morocco and its ambitions in the region also will unlock huge economic opportunities for British companies, and this UK-Moroccan partnership includes a £5 billion facility from UK Export Finance, which in turn will drive faster economic growth across the region.
Trade with Morocco is already a quiet success story for Britain, and trade between our two countries has already almost doubled since 2018, to over £4.2 billion in 2024. Morocco plays an important role in ensuring supermarkets are stocked year-round, without competing with our own farmers and fishermen, and tomatoes, sardines and soft fruit are among our biggest imports.
Britain's ambition of becoming a clean energy superpower can be boosted by access to landmark projects in solar, wind and green hydrogen through this new partnership. UK companies can also play a significant role in equipping Morocco's healthcare system with digital tools, medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, while there are new safeguards against the counterfeiting of British brands.
I would hope that further defence engagement opportunities were also discussed in these meetings – not simply defence sales and training, but the possibility of greater cooperation in the eastern Atlantic to address new maritime challenges.
Britain and Morocco have been engaged with each other for over 800 years. The first Moroccan ambassador came to London in 1600 during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and our first trade treaty was signed over 300 years ago. We are now moving into a new era, looking to address challenges and seize opportunities together.
Last year, the Foreign Secretary spoke of a reset in relations between Britain and Africa, and a strategic engagement with the continent grounded in 'progressive realism'. The UK's re-energised partnership with Morocco, putting security, stability and prosperity at the forefront of this engagement, proves that those sentiments were not just words.
Lt Gen Sir Simon Mayall is a retired British Army officer and a former Middle East adviser at the Ministry of Defence
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