For the Kingdom of Morocco, there was never any question of responding positively to the invitation to the "BRICS/Africa" meeting planned in South Africa or of participating in this meeting at any level, says an authorized source of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccans Residing Abroad.
In response to certain media which recently referred to the Kingdom's hypothetical candidacy for membership of the "BRICS" Grouping, as well as its possible participation in the next "BRICS/Africa" meeting, scheduled for August 24 in Johannesburg in South Africa, the same source emphasizes that this is not an initiative of the BRICS or the African Union, but an invitation from South Africa, in a national capacity.
"It is a meeting organized on the basis of a unilateral initiative of the South African government", the same source specifies, adding that Morocco has therefore assessed this invitation in the light of its tense bilateral relationship with this country.
According to the same source, South Africa has, in fact, always shown primary hostility towards the Kingdom, and has systematically taken negative and dogmatic positions on the question of the Moroccan Sahara.
"Pretoria has thus multiplied, nationally and within the African Union, notoriously malicious acts against the higher interests of Morocco," it says.
And the authorized source of the ministry to support that the South African diplomacy is known for its light, improvised and unpredictable management as regards organization of this kind of events.
As proof, we continue, of the deliberate and provocative breaches of protocol that marked Morocco's invitation to this meeting. Worse, many countries and entities seem to have been arbitrarily invited by the host country without any real basis or prior consultation with the other member countries of the BRICS Grouping.
"It had thus become clear that South Africa was going to divert this event from its nature and its objective, to serve an unacknowledged agenda", affirms the same source, noting that Morocco consequently dismissed, from the start, any favorable reaction to the South African invitation.
Regarding the relationship of the Kingdom of Morocco with the BRICS Group, the authorized source of the ministry notes that once again, South African diplomacy has arrogated the right to speak about Morocco and its relationship with the BRICS, without prior consultation, believing that these are "approximations" that in no way reflect reality.
For this same source, Morocco certainly maintains substantial and promising bilateral relations with the four other members of the Grouping and it is even linked to three of them by Strategic Partnership Agreements. However, the Kingdom has never formally applied for the "BRICS" grouping.
“Besides, there is not yet a framework or specific procedures governing the expansion of this grouping,” it says.
And the authorized source maintains that the future of Morocco's relations with the grouping as such, whether in their nature or in their scope, "will be part of the general framework and strategic orientations of Morocco's foreign policy, as defined by His Majesty King Mohammed VI”.
"Morocco remains attached to an efficient, united and renovated multilateralism", the same source points out, affirming that the Kingdom considers that multilateral platforms should not be used to encourage division or interfere in the internal affairs of sovereigns States, nor create precedents which risk, one day or another, turning against their initiators.
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