Russia is largely reluctant to reintegrate the cooperation agreement in the field of fishing with Morocco, which has brought them together in the past four years, before its end in December.
On this side, the Russian part wished to renovate this agreement, as this would allow Russian fishing boats to navigate again at the level of the Moroccan coast and to fish specifically.
These efforts are compatible with what has entered into the statements of Elie Hestakov, head of the Russian Federal Fishing Agency, in which he said: “We have made a government project concerning the signing of a new agreement with the Moroccan party for a period of four years.”
According to what has been reported by “Interfax”, Sysakov confirmed that “all the problems linked to it have already been discussed”, continuing: “After the signing, we can fish 80,000 tonnes of fish in the pure economic zone of Morocco this year.”
In this context, an official source of the fishing sector in the kingdom has confirmed: “There is a discussion on the question of the renewal of the bilateral agreement with the Russian party, however, no decision was made on time.
The source of the newspaper explained that “the agreement signed in 2020 with the Russian party granted the latter the right to hunt on the Moroccan coast, using 10 specialized boats”, benefiting that “these boats left the Kingdom coast at the end of 2024, because they were mainly active in the sardine hunt.”
Nor did he exclude “, reaching a new agreement with the Russian party in the future, which would help renew the cooperation agreement in the field of marine fishing in force in the past four years”, “while reaffirming that” things have not yet been decided in this way “.
For its part, a professional source in the sector said that “professionals, in turn, expect what will result in discussions between Moscow and Rabat in this aspect, and if the cooperation agreement between them in the field of fishing will be renewed or not, in particular after the abolition of its consideration, which collected the Kingdom of the European Union.”
He also stressed “the importance of this subject in relation to the strategic and diplomatic aspect of Morocco”; However, he added that “the current situation requires new studies which highlight the scenarios expected in this regard, in particular with the decline in the national wealth of fish, in particular sardines that the Russians seriously accept”.
In the same context, the same source underlined “the need for Morocco to start discussion with Russia concerning the problems that monitor Moroccan fish exporters on Russian soil, in particular with regard to performance procedures, in particular with the presence of non-solutions for them.”
It should be noted that Morocco and Russia extended, last October, the cooperation agreement between them in the field of marine fishing until the end of 2024, which also includes the waters of the southern provinces; This coincided with several talks who brought together civil servants on both sides.
