Cuba and Morocco re-establish diplomatic ties after 37 years

Cuba and Morocco in the third week of April 2017 signed an agreement to re-establish diplomatic ties after a gap of 37 years.

The announcement was made by the Cuban Foreign Ministry.

The agreement, which states "Guided by the mutual will to develop friendly relations, the two governments agreed to reestablish ties as well as political, economic and cultural cooperation," was signed by the two countries' envoys to the United Nations in New York.

Morocco's King Mohamed VI has already ordered the opening of an embassy in Havana. Cuba is one of the few Latin American countries where Rabat was not represented to date.

After Cuba’s diplomatic reestablishment with Morocco, South Korea, Somalia and Israel are the only remaining countries that do not have any ties with the Latin American nation.

Background

• Cuba and Morocco relationship suffered several strains due to Cuba’s decision to side with Algeria during the Morocco-Algerian military conflict of 1963 known as the Sand War.

• In the 1970s, Havana again decided to side with Algeria in its support for the independence of the Western Sahara from Morocco.

• Morocco finally cut ties with Cuba in 1980 after the latter officially recognized Western Sahara as the independent Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which Morocco claims as its own territory.