{"id":2949,"date":"2025-06-09T15:30:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-09T15:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2025-06-09T17:39:03","modified_gmt":"2025-06-09T17:39:03","slug":"a-royal-vision-for-african-sovereignty-over-the-seas-king-mohammed-vis-call-for-an-atlantic-of-solidarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/a-royal-vision-for-african-sovereignty-over-the-seas-king-mohammed-vis-call-for-an-atlantic-of-solidarity\/","title":{"rendered":"A Royal Vision for African Sovereignty Over the Seas: King Mohammed VI\u2019s Call for an Atlantic of Solidarity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4059\" data-end=\"4449\">In an era of mounting geopolitical pressures, climate urgency, and regional vulnerabilities, King Mohammed VI\u2019s message to the \u201cAfrica for the Ocean\u201d summit, co-chaired in Nice by President Emmanuel Macron and Princess Lalla Hasnaa, emerges as more than a diplomatic note. It reads as a strategic doctrine, a blueprint for a future where African oceans are no longer peripheral\u2014but central.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4451\" data-end=\"4511\"><strong data-start=\"4459\" data-end=\"4511\">Is the ocean Africa\u2019s next sovereignty frontier?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4513\" data-end=\"4836\">The Moroccan monarch wastes no time in diagnosing the paradox: Africa, with its 30,000 km of coastline and vast marine wealth, remains marginalized in ocean governance. He reframes the sea not merely as an ecological concern, but as the nexus of food security, climate resilience, energy sovereignty, and regional cohesion.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">\ud83c\uddf2\ud83c\udde6\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf3 \u00ab\u202fLe Maroc, fort de ses 3\u202f500 km de c\u00f4tes et de 1,2 million de km\u00b2 d\u2019espaces maritimes, s\u2019engage avec d\u00e9termination \u00e0 prendre sa part de l\u2019\u0153uvre collective.\u202f\u00bb<\/p>\n<p>Extrait du message du Roi Mohammed VI, lu par la Princesse Lalla Hasnaa au sommet \u00ab\u202fL\u2019Afrique pour l\u2019Oc\u00e9an\u202f\u00bb \u00e0\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/q2xxkrBLxh\">pic.twitter.com\/q2xxkrBLxh<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Le360 (@Le360fr) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Le360fr\/status\/1932096472641597622?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 9, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"4838\" data-end=\"5005\">His call is bold: Africa must move from <em data-start=\"4878\" data-end=\"4889\">potential<\/em> to <em data-start=\"4893\" data-end=\"4904\">ownership<\/em>. The ocean is no longer a distant resource; it is an extension of national and continental identity.<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"5007\" data-end=\"5056\"><strong data-start=\"5014\" data-end=\"5056\">Three axes, one African ocean doctrine<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ol style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"5058\" data-end=\"6034\">\n<li data-start=\"5058\" data-end=\"5398\">\n<p data-start=\"5061\" data-end=\"5398\"><strong data-start=\"5061\" data-end=\"5087\">Structured Blue Growth<\/strong>: The king redefines the blue economy as a strategic necessity. Aquaculture, renewable marine energy, biotech, port industries, and coastal tourism must be interconnected within an investment-driven value chain. Morocco\u2019s own megaprojects\u2014Tanger Med, Dakhla Atlantique, Nador West Med\u2014serve as proof-of-concept.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"5400\" data-end=\"5704\">\n<p data-start=\"5403\" data-end=\"5704\"><strong data-start=\"5403\" data-end=\"5448\">Enhanced South-South Maritime Cooperation<\/strong>: Ocean governance, says the king, must transcend national boundaries. Africa must coordinate efforts on biodiversity protection, maritime security, and equitable wealth sharing. The subtext is clear: Africa must speak as one in global marine negotiations.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li data-start=\"5706\" data-end=\"6034\">\n<p data-start=\"5709\" data-end=\"6034\"><strong data-start=\"5709\" data-end=\"5741\">An Inclusive Atlantic Vision<\/strong>: Through the Atlantic African States Initiative, Morocco proposes the Atlantic as a new space for collective security and economic integration. Notably, it includes Sahelian landlocked states, suggesting an inclusive geoeconomic framework that challenges old geographic and political divides.<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"6036\" data-end=\"6094\"><strong data-start=\"6044\" data-end=\"6094\">The Atlantic: Africa\u2019s next geopolitical core?<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"6096\" data-end=\"6317\">When King Mohammed VI references the Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline, it\u2019s more than infrastructure\u2014it\u2019s symbolism. It signifies Africa reorienting its energy future toward internal integration, not just external extraction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"6319\" data-end=\"6500\">As global focus drifts toward the Indo-Pacific, is Morocco spearheading an \u201cAfrican Atlantic moment\u201d? Will traditional partners like France support this paradigm shift\u2014or resist it?<\/p>\n<h4 style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"6502\" data-end=\"6558\"><strong data-start=\"6510\" data-end=\"6558\">Contextualizing with data and global reports<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"6560\" data-end=\"6807\">UNEP and AU reports highlight the vast losses Africa faces due to illegal fishing, maritime insecurity, and lack of integrated blue economy frameworks. King Mohammed VI\u2019s message attempts to fill that vacuum\u2014offering not just ideas, but direction.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\" data-start=\"6809\" data-end=\"6990\">His words are not merely a speech\u2014they form a doctrine. The question is: will Africa follow? Can the ocean become the stage for a pragmatic, unified, post-colonial African strategy?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an era of mounting geopolitical pressures, climate urgency, and regional vulnerabilities, King Mohammed VI\u2019s message to the \u201cAfrica for the Ocean\u201d summit, co-chaired in Nice by President Emmanuel Macron and Princess Lalla Hasnaa, emerges as more than a diplomatic note. It reads as a strategic doctrine, a blueprint for a future where African oceans [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,42,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-africa","category-europe-russia","category-the-maghreb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2949"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2950,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2949\/revisions\/2950"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}