Summary:

On 27 August 2024, the newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs (MFA), Mohamed Ali Nafti, received a phone call from his Moroccan counterpart who congratulated him for his new role and for the confidence of President Saied. 

 The two diplomats discussed reinforcing cooperation and working to increase trade while highlighting the long-standing ties between the two countries.  

Two weeks prior, the commemoration in France of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing in Provence in 1944 allowed for the holding of a high-level meeting between former Tunisian MFA, Nabil Ammar and the Moroccan Head of the Government. At that time, the two officials discussed ways to reinforce bilateral cooperation between the two states. 

Outlook: 

The recent exchanges between the Maghrebi Ministers reflects their will to restore warming relations after the diplomatic crisis that occurred when Tunisian President Saied received the head of the separatist Polisario Front in August 2022. 

This opportunity also points to Tunisia’s intention to preserve good ties with Morocco despite joining a Tripartite Consultative Meeting with Algeria and Libya parallel to the Maghreb Arab Union (UMA). 

However, Tunisian relations with Morocco are necessarily limited by Algeria’s discouragement of a full rapprochement between the two states, especially on the question of Western Sahara. Furthermore, the normalization of relations between Morocco and Israel will likely continue preventing Tunisia from trusting and considering Morocco as a close partner in the region. 

Given that the Algerian MFA was the first to congratulate his new Tunisian counterpart and the Algerian Ambassador was the first to meet him, these latest developments confirm Algeria’s aim to preserve Tunisia as a part of its sphere of influence despite slight improvements in relations with Rabat.

Explore our services or speak with our team of North Africa-based risk experts.