Opening in Rabat of Exhibition on Occasion of 65th Anniversary of Establishing Diplomatic Relations between Morocco, Serbia

15 March 2022 Printable Version

Rabat - The opening of an exhibition celebrating the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the Republic of Serbia and the Kingdom of Morocco took place Tuesday at the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco (BNRM) in Rabat, in the presence of many personalities from various backgrounds.

Organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Serbia, the Embassy of the Republic of Serbia in the Kingdom of Morocco and the Archives of Yugoslavia, in collaboration with the BNRM, this exhibition brings together some thirty archival documents and photographs, in addition to a video sequence dating from 1961, marking the visit to Morocco of the then President of Yugoslavia, Josip Broz Tito.

Among the archives on display are diplomatic correspondences dating from 1956, the year of Morocco's independence, in which the Yugoslav government of the time recognized the independence of the Kingdom and took steps to establish diplomatic relations with independent Morocco.

The exhibition also includes news articles from the Serbian News Agency (Tanjug) tracing the evolution of relations between the two countries, in addition to portraits of diplomats and personalities who marked the history of bilateral relations.

"The Moroccan-Serbian friendship goes back to long before the independence of Morocco," said the Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to Morocco, Ivan Bauer, recalling that Serbia, Yugoslavia at the time, was one of the biggest supporters of the Moroccan liberation movement. "We had official meetings with the liberation movement, whether in Paris or New York and even in Belgrade," he said.

In a statement to M24, MAP's 24-hour news channel, Bauer said that Serbia is one of the first countries to establish diplomatic relations with Morocco, recalling that this decision was taken on March 1, 1957.

He also said that this year will be celebrated as "Year of Serbia in Morocco" and "Year of Morocco in Serbia", through cultural programs that "intend to bring the two nations and help the two peoples to know each other better".

For his part, the Secretary General of the Department of Culture at the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Communication, Abdelilah Afifi, praised, in a speech on the occasion, the willingness of both countries to establish a fruitful bilateral cooperation in several areas.