RABAT (Reuters) – France is ready to help finance a 3 gigawatt electricity cable linking the Moroccan city of Casablanca to the city of Dakhla in Western Sahara, the French Minister of Economy and Finance said on Friday.
Western Sahara is the subject of a dispute between Morocco, which designates it as “southern provinces”, and the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria, which claims an independent state there.
Bruno Le Maire announced during a Franco-Moroccan business forum in Rabat that France was ready to participate in financing the infrastructure project.
French Foreign Minister Stéphane Sejourné said in February that France supported Morocco’s investments in Western Sahara and reaffirmed its support for Rabat’s autonomy plan for the territory, a sign of warming ties between the two countries after a period of diplomatic freeze.
Morocco wants France to recognize its full sovereignty over Western Sahara, like the United States and many Arab and African countries.
France is also ready to cooperate with Morocco to develop solar, wind and green hydrogen energy, as well as nuclear energy, declared Bruno Le Maire.
The French Development Agency (AFD) would grant a loan of 350 million euros to support the Moroccan phosphate and fertilizer giant OCP in its decarbonization effort, added the Minister of Finance.
France is the largest foreign investor in Morocco, with an amount amounting to 8.2 billion euros ($8.75 billion) for the period until 2022.
Morocco is home to factories of major French companies such as Renault and Safran.
(Report by Ahmed Eljechtimi, French version by Alban Kacher, edited by Sophie Louet)
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