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In a telephone conversation with King Mohammed VI, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday that China stands ready to promote cooperation with Morocco on Covid-19 vaccine development and production.
During their phone call, President Xi noted that Morocco and China have «been standing together against the pandemic» and that «he and the King have exchanged letters multiple times».
According to CCTV, the Chinese President recalled that since the start of the pandemic «Morocco offered China invaluable support and solidarity and took care of Chinese citizens stranded in Morocco».
During the same call, the two leaders discussed «the friendly relations between the two countries, reinforced by the Joint Declaration on Strategic Partnership, signed by King Mohammed VI and President Xi Jinping during the Royal visit to Beijing, in May 2016», read a press release issued by the Royal Office.
King Mohammed VI and President Xi Jinping also discussed the «future stages of bilateral cooperation in vaccine research and development, procurement and production».
Morocco bets on Chinese vaccine
This discussion comes after the signing by videoconference, on August 20, of two cooperation agreements in terms of clinical trials of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine between Morocco and the Chinese laboratory «Sinopharm CNBG» (China National Biotec Group Company Limited). The day before, a discussion between Foreign affairs minister Nasser Bourita and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, paved the way for this announcement.
The agreements signed between Morocco and China allow the Kingdom to take part in phase 3 clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine developed by state-owned pharmaceutical giant, Sinopharm. «These are multicenter clinical trials of the vaccine, the first of their kind in the history of the Kingdom», welcomed Nasser Bourita, in a speech on this occasion.
A week after this ceremony, the military hospital in Rabat, the Ibn Sina University Hospital Center (CHU) in the capital and the Ibn Rochd University Hospital in Casablanca began receiving the first volunteers to be subjected to these clinical trials.
Their number is around 5,000 individuals divided into three groups across the three hospitals. They will be isolated for 40 days, where they will be monitored and checked daily by medical teams.
If the strengthening of Morocco-China relations has accelerated since the start of the health crisis, it is in the wake of the meeting of heads of state in May 2016 in Beijing. For the record, King Mohammed VI and President Xi Jinping signed a Joint Declaration on the Strategic Partnership between the two countries.
