A statement by the FAR General Staff said that on royal instructions, Abdeltif Loudyi, Minister Delegate to the Head of Government, in charge of National Defense Administration, received, Friday in Rabat, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper, on a working visit to the Kingdom from October 1 to 3.
The two officials held talks during which they discussed the various aspects of bilateral cooperation in the field of national defense, as well as the prospects for their development, reports the statement. The two officials agreed on military cooperation between the armed forces of both countries for the period 2020-2030, focused on consolidating common security objectives, including improving the degree of military preparedness, enhancing skills, and developing interoperability of forces.
Investment in the defense industry
Abdeltif Loudyi also proposed to consolidate military cooperation with the United States by promoting joint investment projects in Morocco in the defense industry sector, with a view to promoting technology transfer and gradually build the strategic autonomy of the Kingdom in this field.
On the same day, Lieutenant General, Inspector General of the FAR, received Mark Esper at the level of the General Staff of the FAR in Rabat, said the same source.
The talks held in the presence of the Ambassador of the United States of America in Morocco, David Fischer, and the Defense Attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Rabat, focused on the assessment of bilateral military cooperation. This cooperation includes the organization of combined exercises, the exchange of information visits, and participation in various training and education courses.
Both sides emphasized their ambition to develop the age-old cooperative relations between the armies of the two countries in the same spirit of friendship and shared trust. The deepening of these relations should take concrete form through the consolidation of technical cooperation and its diversification to include aspects that further develop the interoperability of the armies and their capacities to effectively face threats that may arise.
They also committed to following up on the work of the Morocco-U.S. Defense Advisory Committee to strengthen military cooperation between the two countries. The culmination of this cooperation remains the organization and conduct in Morocco of the combined Moroccan-American exercise “African Lion”, a major exercise considered among the most important joint exercises in the world.
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