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Russia-Morocco talks
11 October 2017 13:30 Rabat, the Kingdom of Morocco


As part of his visit to the Kingdom of Morocco, Dmitry Medvedev held talks with Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco Saad Eddine El Otmani.

Russia-Morocco talks


Documents signed following the talks

Joint news conference by Dmitry Medvedev and Saad Eddine El Otmani

Russia-Morocco talks

Excerpt from the transcript:





Russia-Morocco talks

Saad Eddine El Otmani (via interpreter): In the name of Allah, Most Beneficent, Most Merciful.

Mr Prime Minister, dear friend. Ladies and gentlemen, honourable ministers.

First and foremost, Mr Prime Minister, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you and tell you how glad we are to receive you and your delegation in the Kingdom of Morocco. This visit is evidence of the privileged relations of friendship marked by mutual respect that unites our two countries. This visit falls within the context of our clear choice of prospects for cooperation, which began with the historic visit of King Mohammed VI to Moscow in 2016, and advanced strategic partnership established as a result of that visit. This partnership has set the course for future strong, fruitful and positive cooperation between us that meets the aspirations and mutual obligations of the two countries. All this has to do with the “road map,” a clear, ambitious and practical one, which allows us to strengthen our partnership that meets the legitimate aspirations of our two countries in terms of cooperation between us. We are very optimistic about this new dynamic and are convinced that this new way of cooperation undoubtedly will contribute to stability and further development in strengthening the countries’ interests within the context of solidarity and mutual understanding and preserving the territorial integrity of the two countries.

More to be posted soon…

Documents signed following the talks:





Signing joint documents

- Protocol between the Federal Customs Service of the Russian Federation and the Administration of Customs and Indirect Taxes of the Kingdom of Morocco on Organising the Exchange of Preliminary Information on Goods and Vehicles Transferred between the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Morocco;

Signed on the Russian side by Head of the Federal Customs Service Vladimir Bulavin; on the Moroccan side by Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests Aziz Akhannouch and Minister of Economy and Finance Mohammed Boussaid.

- Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Agriculture of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests of the Kingdom of Morocco on Cooperation in Agriculture;

Signed on the Russian side by Minister of Agriculture of the Russian Federation Alexander Tkachev; on the Moroccan side by Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests Aziz Akhannouch.

- Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco on Mutual Protection of the Results of Intellectual Activities and Protection of Intellectual Property in Bilateral Military-Technical Cooperation;

Signed on the Russian side by the Head of the Federal Service for Intellectual Property Grigory Ibliyev; on the Moroccan side by Minister-Delegate for National Defence under the Prime Minister Abdellatif Loudiyi.

- Memorandum of Understanding between the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Moroccan Academy for Diplomatic Studies of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Kingdom of Morocco;

Signed on the Russian side by Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov; on the Moroccan side by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Kingdom of Morocco Nasser Bourita.

- Agreement between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Kingdom of Morocco on Cooperation and Mutual Administrative Assistance in Customs Affairs;

Signed on the Russian side by Head of the Federal Customs Service Vladimir Bulavin; on the Moroccan side by Minister of Economy and Finance Mohammed Boussaid.

- Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development of the Kingdom of Morocco on Cooperation in Energy Efficiency;

Signed on the Russian side by Minister of Energy Alexander Novak; on the Moroccan side by the Minister of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development Aziz Rabbah.

- Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Energy of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development of the Kingdom of Morocco on Cooperation in Renewable Energy Sources;

Signed on the Russian side by Minister of Energy Alexander Novak; on the Moroccan side by the Minister of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development Aziz Rabbah and Chairman of the Renewable Energy Agency Mustafa Bakkuri.

- Programme of Cooperation between the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation and the Ministry of Culture of the Kingdom of Morocco on Cooperation in Culture in 2017-2019.

Signed on the Russian side by Deputy Minister of Culture Alla Manilova; on the Moroccan side by Minister of Culture and Communications Mohamed Laaradj.

- Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation and the State Secretariat on Professional Education of the Kingdom of Morocco on Secondary Vocational Education;

Signed on the Russian side by Deputy Minister of Education and Science Lyudmila Ogorodova; on the Moroccan side by State Secretary at the Minister of National

Education, Vocational Training, Higher Education and Scientific Research Larbi Bencheikh.

- Memorandum of Understanding between the State Atomic Energy Corporation ROSATOM and the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Sustainable Development of the Kingdom of Morocco on Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy;

Signed on the Russian side by Director of the ROSATOM Middle East and North Africa FZ-LLC — International Network Private Institution Alexander Voronkov; On the Moroccan side by General Director of the National Centre for Nuclear Energy, Sciences and Technology of the Kingdom of Morocco Khalid Mediouri.

Joint news conference by Dmitry Medvedev and Saad Eddine El Otmani

Excerpts from the transcript:





News conference by Dmitry Medvedev and Saad Eddine El Otmani

Saad Eddine El Otmani (via interpreter): This visit by Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev has special significance, as it is the first official visit of a prime minister of the Russian Federation to Morocco. So, welcome once again. This is your first time in Morocco, so this visit is important from a personal perspective as well.

Vizit


Dmitry Medvedev lays a wreath at the tomb of King Mohammed V


Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev holds talks with Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Morocco Saad Eddine El Otmani


Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is conferred an Honorary Doctorate from the Mohammed V University


Dmitry Medvedev meets with Habib El Malki, President of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco


Dmitry Medvedev meets with Hakim Benchamach, President of the House of Councillors of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco

This visit is regarded as an historic moment in relations between our countries. It will help strengthen the deep strategic partnership, the agreement on which was signed during the historic visit by King of Morocco Mohammed VI to Moscow in March 2016. This partnership relies on strong foundations for cooperation, which are strong and renewable, and whose horizons expand in various sectors. At some point, this partnership translated into signing 16 agreements in the presence of the King of Morocco, and created new opportunities for dynamic and extensive cooperation between the two countries.

This partnership relies on strong foundations for cooperation, which are strong and renewable, and whose horizons expand in various sectors. At some point, this partnership translated into signing 16 agreements in the presence of the King of Morocco, and created new opportunities for dynamic and extensive cooperation between the two countries.

Today, on behalf of the Kingdom of Morocco, I would like to once again confirm our intentions to continue developing bilateral relations between our countries, especially in priority sectors. Today we have discussed and exchanged views on the energy sector, industry and agriculture. We believe these sectors are priorities. But we also are committed to strengthening trade relations and working to boost trade. As the King of Morocco instructed, we have opened up new horizons for strengthening cooperation in the defence industry and in security.

Speaking about regional and international issues, bilateral discussions are always ongoing. We discuss our positions on various current issues on both the regional and international level. Morocco plays an important role in the region. We also see Morocco in terms of its presence on the African continent and its interest in the African continent. From this perspective, we have discussed possibilities of cooperation and partnership and strengthening our presence in Africa. We believe Africa will be a force in the future; it will play a very important role on the international stage in the decades to come. So we are cooperating to strengthen our presence in Africa. It is very important for us.

Through this visit we affirm our openness and readiness to pursue new horizons of cooperation. Today we have signed 11 important agreements in addition to the other 16 agreements signed in the presence of the heads of our countries – the King of Morocco and President Putin – in March 2016. We now possess a very important arsenal of laws that we can use as a basis to give a new impetus to bilateral relations between the countries.

Mr Prime Minister, once again, it gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Morocco and I thank you for this visit. We have pledged to continue our cooperation in various spheres and use the outcome of this visit as a starting point to further develop our cooperation.

Dmitry Medvedev: Mr Prime Minister, colleagues, members of the press, our talks just ended, but before I say anything about the talks, I would like to thank my colleague, Prime Minster of the Government of Morocco, Mr Saad Eddine El Otmani, for his warm welcome, for the excellent opportunity to hold talks and his hospitality.

Now, with regard to the talks, my colleague just said that they were useful and substantive, and follow up on the work that our states have been doing to implement the course toward establishing a strategic partnership. In this sense, the visit of His Royal Majesty, which took place in 2016, was exceptionally important. This visit signified the growing strength of our partnership, and a large number of documents that the government is currently implementing were signed back then.

Today, as my colleague said, we were present at the signing of yet another large package of documents, 11 in all, which cover virtually all aspects of our cooperation, from agriculture to energy, as well as the sphere of culture and education.

Morocco is Russia’s long-time reliable partner. Our relations can be measured in different ways, but they undeniably date back to the 18th century. As is known, an exchange of diplomatic missions took place in the late 19th century. The new state, the Kingdom of Morocco, which became independent, quickly established relations with the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union was the first country to recognise the Kingdom of Morocco as an independent state. These are the milestones of our history, and they are important for putting our relations in perspective. We look forward to these relations continuing to evolve on a solid contractual basis. I am referring to the political will enshrined during the visit of the King of Morocco Mohammed VI to Russia, his meetings with the President of our country, and the talks that were also held by our governments.

The potential for cooperation is quite large. We have an impressive track record. I am referring to the investments that were made at a certain point, the construction projects which were carried out with the technical assistance of the Soviet Union, in particular, the Al-Wahda hydroelectric power project. And, of course, a product line which enjoys an established presence on our market, by which I mean fruit. A significant portion of these fruits are not cultivated in our country, so we are interested in buying more of them from Morocco, which we mentioned today during our talks.

We discussed in detail which new projects could form the basis of our cooperation. Some of them made it into the newly signed agreements, including energy in various forms, and ways of obtaining energy products. This includes, of course, developing contacts in the field of agriculture, and new agreements. This is a two-way street - we expect that we will, in turn, increase our supplies of grain and other crops to Morocco, and Morocco will supply its excellent fruit and other goods to our market.

Of course, tourism is an exciting area of cooperation. Russian citizens have enjoyed visa-free travel to Morocco since 2005. Direct flights are available, especially during the high season. According to the Moroccan authorities, about 50,000 Russian tourists visited Morocco this year.

We are confident that there is good potential for cooperation in high-tech and research-intensive areas. Clearly, we will continue to cooperate in the sphere of culture and education, to which end important documents have been signed as well. We are discovering new areas for ourselves, in particular, as my colleague just mentioned, cooperation in the sphere of military supplies and security.

We will certainly continue to work across all these areas.

Once again, I would like to thank my colleague, Mr El Otmani, for his hospitality. This is my first visit to Morocco and, of course, it has made quite an impression.

More to be posted soon…
Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is conferred an Honorary Doctorate from the Mohammed V University
11 October 2017 12:30 Rabat, the Kingdom of Morocco








Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev is conferred an Honorary Doctorate from the Mohammed V University

Mohammed V University is one of Morocco’s biggest higher education establishments. It was established in 1957 by King Mohammed V soon after the kingdom became independent.

The university comprises five research institutes, two higher schools, three technical schools and eight departments, located in Rabat and across Morocco. The faculty of more than 2,500 teach over 55,000 students. The university trains professionals in humanities, science, the law, economics, social sciences, industrial production and medicine. It also has over 50 specialised clubs and associations. Mohammed V University is a member of the Averroes student exchange programme, a network that includes 20 European and Maghreb universities and has 74 associated members. The University has signed more than 150 bilateral exchange agreements with various foreign schools, including in Russia.

Dmitry Medvedev’s remarksduring the ceremony:

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, friends, colleagues,

First of all, I would like to thank you for inviting me to speak at Mohammed V University, one of your country’s leading education establishments, actually, the main education establishment in your country and in the Arab world, which is known far beyond Morocco and which trains top-quality specialists in a variety of fields. For me, this is a good opportunity to discuss the prospects for cooperation as we see them. Although, I have to hand it to the President, after his brilliant speech, I’m not sure what I can add. It was a great speech, which contained a historical overview of Russian-Moroccan relations and an assessment of our current cooperation and prospects.

Thank you very much for such a detailed description of what we are doing.

But, I would like to focus on education issues, since this is probably what matters most at a meeting in a university. However, I would like to spend a moment to say a few words about our relations in general.

Morocco is our true and tried partner. Our relations have been developing for more than two centuries and are taking on new implementation forms. Of course, there is an economic component underlying these relations. The visit of our delegation is largely focusing on the promotion of the economic aspect of our cooperation. Russia has traditionally contributed to providing energy resources to Morocco. In turn, your country, engages in active trade with our state. Admittedly, in recent years, thanks to the decisions made at the top level, as well as thanks to the visit of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, our relations have reached a whole new level. As of the onset of 2002, these ties have been referred to as strategic partnership. This was not the case in earlier times, when Russia was an empire, nor during the Soviet era, although it was then that the important parts of our cooperation were put in place. Now we have become strategic partners. I believe that this is not accidental.

It's not just that the trade and economic cooperation between our countries is expanding. We are looking for new investment projects at the same time doing our best to expand our trade. The most important thing is that this cooperation has acquired a new quality. This new quality is about a new humanitarian dimension, which includes educational projects, which, by the way, affect all spheres of life be it agriculture and agrarian technology or high technology in the narrow sense of the word. We plan on continuing this. Clearly, the current dynamics are good, however, this is not quite what we would like to see. I’m absolutely confident that our countries together with our economies and, most important of all, the people who live in the Russian Federation and the Kingdom of Morocco, can take these relations to a whole new level, and not only strengthen trade and economic ties, but give an impetus to developing cooperation across all spheres. As I mentioned earlier on, our reserves for the promotion of this cooperation are far from being exhausted.

Perhaps, education is one of the most important areas. It was absolutely correctly noted that during Soviet times , when my country had somewhat different borders and had a different name, the foundations for cooperation in the field of education were laid. This is fantastic that a significant part of the graduates of the Soviet and afterwards Russian universities continue to live and work in Morocco as well as make their contribution to our relations. This is why cooperation in the field of education must be expanded drastically. I am confident that contacts − and government decisions, by the way − should be no less intense than anything that we are doing to promote our trade and economic ties. All the more so, since the economy of the future is truly an economy based on innovations. It may be a common platitude, but it’s true that in today’s world a person must engage in life-long learning, no matter what he or she may be doing for a living. It is important that thousands of Moroccans were trained at Russian universities, and their skills and expertise now allow them to take an active part in the life of their country. We highly appreciate this and believe that this is an extremely valuable investment in the future of our relations.

It is also important that our universities are developing partner ties with each other. All those who wish to study the Russian language as well as culture have free access not only to the books and departments concerned, but also to new forms of education such as a special Russian language website on education. The role of distance or online education is ever growing in the modern world. According to available data, Moroccans are actively taking advantage of this opportunity. At any rate, the number of visitors to this website is growing rapidly. However, this does not mean that we should learn about each other only from a distance, that is, online. On the contrary, the more direct contacts we have, the better. We need to promote cooperation in education not only to address current tasks, even though they are very important and we must be pragmatic in this sense. This cooperation is also important for our future because it offers a good opportunity for our young people to understand one another.

The world’s fabric is knitted out of problems. You feel this especially so in the Maghreb, in North Africa as well as in the Middle East. There are really many complexities and conflicts here. In this context, education, communications and the adoption of a common cultural code are the best methods of building up mutual understanding. This is why we believe in the promotion of cultural projects. When young people start working after receiving their diplomas, these projects will give them an opportunity to launch joint businesses. Nothing unites people better than a joint business or joint projects. Overall, it is always easier to invent something new when one is doing it together. This may change our economies and the global economy in the future. We are completely open for this kind of dialogue.

We have always been open to it, from the time diplomatic relations were first established to the present. All the more so since our economy is not closed, it is also developing. Just like the economy of Morocco, it is going through a period of transformation. Not without problems, but we are adapting the structure of our economy to new economic realities and the challenges of the modern world which are many. The global economy is constantly being shaken by crises, and we have to adapt to new economic conditions. By the way, it's much easier to do so together.

During a recent Government meeting, we approved a new priority of improving the export potential of our educational institutions. To reiterate, this part of life, I believe, is no less important for all of us – Russia and Morocco alike, and for the vast majority of other countries – than traditional economic development. The key goal of such a project is to increase the appeal of our educational institutions, our universities, for foreign students, improve the conditions of their stay in our country during their studies, and, ultimately, increase awareness of the Russian education brand.

Objectively, Russia has always boasted a good tradition of university education, and secondary education has always been very good as well. However, we can’t rest on our laurels forever, we can’t assume that we have a good foundation in education and therefore we remain an attractive and interesting partner. The world is evolving, and new strong universities are emerging. By the way, your university is one of them. Indeed, it’s based on traditions that have existed in your country for many centuries now, but it is also a completely modern, new and classy university that trains high-quality specialists.

Competition is part of the world of education, too. This is not bad, because competition leads to developing the best practices, the best educational programmes, and exciting courses. We will also engage in this and work to develop full-time forms of education. We invite everyone who is interested in this kind of education to come to our country. These programmes are underway. My colleague just mentioned the number of students from the Kingdom of Morocco who are studying in our country. We, of course, will be developing both online courses and new tourism opportunities. The regulatory framework for accommodating foreign students will be improved. I am confident that by focusing on this priority our educational institutions and universities will be able to step up their cooperation. We will focus on this specifically. I invite everyone who is interested to join this work.

To reiterate, it is not just about getting students aboard, although this in itself is important, but also putting together joint projects, forming new curricula which would be of interest for the student community, professors, and researchers from our countries and, of course, the administrators, professors, and students of your esteemed university.

I’m very grateful for the invitation to speak within the walls of your beautiful university. I want to thank the distinguished President of the university, Mr Saaid Amzazi, for his hospitality. Of course, I wish all the students and the professors new interesting research, new projects, and scientific discoveries, including − and I very much count on it − in a collaborative effort with Russian universities.