In a message on Sunday to the first Morocco-EU summit held in Granada (south of Spain), the Sovereign said "Morocco calls upon the other parties concerned to respond to the appeals of the Security Council and seek a political settlement to the artificial dispute over my country's territorial integrity, based on the Moroccan initiative which offers wide-ranging autonomy to the Sahara region, within the framework of the Kingdom's sovereignty, national unity and territorial integrity."

    HM the King reaffirmed the Kingdom's support for the Union for the Mediterranean, saying that he is "convinced the Union for the Mediterranean will be in a position to explore all that the Mediterranean has to offer and come up with appropriate solutions to the various social and economic challenges facing the Euro-Mediterranean region."

    In this regard, the Sovereign said that the Union for the Mediterranean "will be expected to develop closer cooperation mechanisms at sub-regional level, particularly with the Arab Maghreb Union, a forum which offers vast prospects in this particular area."

    "The Kingdom of Morocco's ambition to contribute to making the Mediterranean a viable, homogeneous space is second only to the urgent need it perceives to launch a truly strategic partnership between Africa and Europe, based on mutual interests, shared challenges and the need to build a common future," HM the King said in the message read by Prime minister Abbas El Fassi.

    The Sovereign added that "the increasingly interlinked  geopolitical and security interests of our two continents, coupled with their intense economic, human and cultural relations, call for an innovative partnership that takes into consideration the geopolitical specificities of each one of the African continent's sub-regions."

    "The security, political, human and economic agenda of the Sahel and Sahara region and of the Atlantic require common, concerted, solidarity-based approaches," the monarch said.