France willing to expand consular presence to Sahara – Senate President

President of the French Senate Gérard Larcher raised the need for an expanded French consular service that covers the Moroccan Sahara,which he called the Southern Provinces of Morocco.

The call echoes a previous promise by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot during president Macron’s visit to Rabat in October 2024.

Since Paris backed Morocco’s sovereignty over its southern provinces,the French ambassador to Rabat visited the Sahara,where a French-Moroccan business operators held a meeting to explore business opportunities in the territory.

Few days ago,French culture minister Rachida Dati visited the Sahara and laid the basis for the opening of a French cultural institute.

The visit by the French Senate President,accompanied by a multi-party delegation,sends a strong message of an unwavering sovereign French decision in backing Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara.

Larcher made it clear that such a position was a stand of the French Republic that transcends the executive.

In the Sahara,Larcher met local elected Sahraoui officials with whom he discussed ways of strengthening French-Moroccan partnership in the Kingdom’s southern provinces.

He promised to hold a meeting in the French Senate involving the business community from both sides to explore cooperation prospects.

During these meetings,members of the French delegation were briefed on the progress achieved by Morocco in the political,economic and social fields,with focus on the tangible efforts deployed in the Southern provinces,and ways of strengthening cooperation in areas linked to local management,decentralization,health,water management (particularly drinking water supply) and waste management.

The same day,the Senate Speaker and his accompanying delegation him kicked off the construction of the OSUI Paul Pascon French school in the city of Laayoune.

The school,to be built in a 2-hectare site,will include classrooms,teachers’ rooms,schoolyards,and multi-sports fields.

Members of the French parliamentary delegation then paid field visits to several socio-educational and economic projects in the city.

By backing Morocco’s sovereignty over the Sahara,France repairs some of its colonial prejudice towards the Kingdom,a nation that was partitioned and struggled to retrieve its territorial integrity with the Sahara at its heart.