Abdeltif Loudyi, Minister Delegate to the Head of Government, in charge of the National Defense Administration, received a delegation of U.S. congressmen at the Administration's headquarters on Monday, in the presence of U.S. Ambassador Puneet Talwar and officials from the U.S. Embassy in Rabat. The delegation, led by Doug Lamborn, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, was composed of seven U.S. Congressmen from the Financial Services, Procurement, Foreign Affairs, Budget, Agriculture, Energy, and Commerce Committees. The U.S. Congressmen emphasized the excellence of the historic relations of friendship and cooperation between the United States and the Kingdom of Morocco, strengthened by their strategic and multifaceted partnership and the exchange of visits by senior officials from both countries. They also praised the Kingdom's important role in promoting peace and stability in Africa, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East, and as an initiator of shared development and prosperity initiatives and projects for Africa, according to a press release from the National Defense Administration. Minister Loudyi welcomed the density of military cooperation ties and the implementation of the Roadmap for Defense Cooperation, signed in October 2020, defining the main areas of cooperation for the 2020-2030 period. The two sides also took this opportunity to express the excellent level of cooperation between the armed forces of the two countries, reflected in particular in the regular holding of the African Lion military exercise, which celebrated its 20th edition this year with the participation of over 7,000 military personnel from African, Arab, and European countries, in addition to the organizing countries, the United States of America and Morocco. At the end of the meeting, the two delegations expressed their satisfaction with the dynamism of this cooperation, while expressing their shared desire to explore and strengthen new opportunities for financial and technical cooperation to consolidate the interoperability of the forces.
