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France and Morocco mend ties after visa spat

France and Morocco announced on Friday they were mending fences after months of tensions over visas, and said President Emmanuel Macron would visit the North African kingdom in early 2023.

Published: 16 December 2022 16:51 CET

France and Morocco mend ties after visa spat

Morocco's Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita shakes hands with his French counterpart Catherine Colonna in Rabat (Photo by FADEL SENNA / AFP)

Speaking in Rabat alongside her Moroccan counterpart Nasser Bourita, French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said it was time to “write a new page together”.

The two countries have been at loggerheads since September 2021, when Paris halved its visa quota for Moroccans in retaliation for the kingdom’s alleged refusal to repatriate citizens living as irregular migrants in France.

The move sparked widespread public anger in Morocco and was labeled as “unjustified” by Rabat.

But Colonna said the countries had returned to “full consular cooperation” since Monday.

French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin was expected to arrive in Morocco’s neighbour Algeria on Friday to discuss similar visa issues.

Macron and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI spoke by phone on Wednesday night after their countries’ dramatic World Cup semi final clash in Qatar which France won 2-0.

Asked about the spiky issue of the Western Sahara, the two ministers played down any tensions.

Morocco sees the desert region as part of its territory, but the Algerian-backed Polisario movement seeks an independent state.

King Mohammed reiterated in August that “the Sahara issue is the prism through which Morocco views its international environment”, demanding that governments “clarify” their position on the subject.

But Colonna said Friday that the kingdom could “count on France’s backing”.

Bourita added that Morocco had “never seen France’s position (on the Western Sahara) as negative”.

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Azerbaijan vehemently rejects the accusation it bears responsibility for the riots that have led to the deaths of five people and rattled the Paris government.

But it is just the latest in a litany of tensions between Paris and Baku and not the first time France has accused Azerbaijan of being behind an alleged disinformation campaign.

The riots in New Caledonia, a French territory lying between Australia and Fiji, were sparked by moves to agree a new voting law that supporters of independence from France say discriminates against the indigenous Kanak population.

Paris points to the sudden emergence of Azerbaijani flags alongside Kanak symbols in the protests, while a group linked to the Baku authorities is openly backing separatists while condemning Paris.

“This isn’t a fantasy. It’s a reality,” interior minister Gérald Darmanin told television channel France 2 when asked if Azerbaijan, China and Russia were interfering in New Caledonia.

“I regret that some of the Caledonian pro-independence leaders have made a deal with Azerbaijan. It’s indisputable,” he alleged.

But he added: “Even if there are attempts at interference… France is sovereign on its own territory, and so much the better”.

“We completely reject the baseless accusations,” Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry spokesman Ayhan Hajizadeh said.

“We refute any connection between the leaders of the struggle for freedom in Caledonia and Azerbaijan.”

In images widely shared on social media, a reportage broadcast Wednesday on the French channel TF1 showed some pro-independence supporters wearing T-shirts adorned with the Azerbaijani flag.

Tensions between Paris and Baku have grown in the wake of the 2020 war and 2023 lightning offensive that Azerbaijan waged to regain control of its breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region from ethnic Armenian separatists.

France is a traditional ally of Christian Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and historic rival, and is also home to a large Armenian diaspora.

Darmanin said Azerbaijan – led since 2003 by President Ilham Aliyev, who succeeded his father Heydar – was a “dictatorship”.

On Wednesday, the Paris government also banned social network TikTok from operating in New Caledonia.

Tiktok, whose parent company is Chinese, has been widely used by protesters. Critics fear it is being employed to spread disinformation coming from foreign countries.

Azerbaijan invited separatists from the French territories of Martinique, French Guiana, New Caledonia and French Polynesia to Baku for a conference in July 2023.

The meeting saw the creation of the “Baku Initiative Group”, whose stated aim is to support “French liberation and anti-colonialist movements”.

The group published a statement this week condemning the French parliament’s proposed change to New Caledonia’s constitution, which would allow outsiders who moved to the territory at least 10 years ago the right to vote in its elections.

Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40 percent of the population.

“We stand in solidarity with our Kanak friends and support their fair struggle,” the Baku Initiative Group said.

Raphael Glucksmann, the lawmaker heading the list for the French Socialists in June’s European Parliament elections, told Public Senat television that Azerbaijan had made “attempts to interfere… for months”.

He said the underlying problem behind the unrest was a domestic dispute over election reform, not agitation fomented by “foreign actors”.

But he accused Azerbaijan of “seizing on internal problems.”

A French government source, who asked not to be named, said pro-Azerbaijani social media accounts had on Wednesday posted an edited montage purporting to show two white police officers with rifles aimed at dead Kanaks.

“It’s a pretty massive campaign, with around 4,000 posts generated by (these) accounts,” the source told AFP.

“They are reusing techniques already used during a previous smear campaign called Olympia.”

In November, France had already accused actors linked to Azerbaijan of carrying out a disinformation campaign aimed at damaging its reputation over its ability to host the Olympic Games in Paris. Baku also rejected these accusations.