Minister Delegate to the Head of Government in charge of National Defense Administration, Abdeltif Loudyi, received Tuesday at the headquarters of this administration US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, Anthony Tata, who is on a three-day working visit to the Kingdom at the head of a large military delegation. At the start of their discussions, the two officials expressed their satisfaction with the strength, excellence and sustainability of the privileged ties and the exceptional strategic partnership between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Morocco, says a release issued by the General Staff of the Royal Armed Forces (FAR). They also highlighted their ambition to further develop these long-standing relations in the same spirit of friendship, mutual understanding and shared trust, the release added. The two officials stressed in this regard the importance of the decision of the US administration to recognize the full sovereignty of the Kingdom of Morocco over the entire region of the Moroccan Sahara. This recognition makes the Moroccan autonomy initiative the only realistic, serious and pragmatic solution to the regional conflict over Morocco's southern provinces, according to the same source. The two sides also underlined that this historic event will certainly have positive impacts on the geostrategy of the region as well as on peace, stability, security and economic integration in the Maghreb, the Sahel and the Middle East. On this occasion and within the framework of the eleventh meeting of the Moroccan-American Defense Advisory Ccommitee, a restricted working session was co-chaired by the Lieutenant General, Inspector General of the FAR, and the US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy, the source said. Afterwards, a plenary session attended by members of the US delegation, the Commander of the Royal Gendarmerie and the heads of the organs of the General Staff of the FAR, to discuss Moroccan-American military cooperation and the prospects for its development. To this end, the two delegations discussed the various aspects and orientations to ensure interoperability. The meeting of the Morocco-US Defebse Advisory Committee, which is held every two years alternately in Rabat and Washington, is part of bilateral military cooperation which mainly focuses on the areas of training, military equipment and logistics, the release added.
