Morocco's naval exercises off the Sahara to be examined by Spain’s foreign minister

Morocco's naval exercises off the Sahara will be on the agenda of a meeting between the President of the Autonomous Government of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, and the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.

The date of the meeting has not yet been set, reports Spanish newspaper ABC. The two parties had already discussed the Royal Moroccan Navy's maneuvers by telephone on Sunday.

Yesterday, the subject was discussed at the upper house of the Spanish parliament. A Canarian senator from a leftist party submitted a written question about the exercises to the Foreign Minister.

The parliamentarian felt that «the principles of transparency and good neighborliness require that the governments of Spain and the Canary Islands be informed of the actions undertaken by Morocco». They stressed that these naval exercises could have an impact on «the Canary Islands».

For the record, on Monday March 25, the Popular Party asked the Spanish government to provide explanations for these operations by the Royal Armed Forces (FAR). The Royal Moroccan Navy is planning to carry out military maneuvers in Moroccan Atlantic waters from March 29 to June 28.