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afrol News, 28 August - Signing five new agreements, the Moroccan government has renewed and strengthened its cooperation with China. The signing ceremony took place during a two-day official visit of the Chinese Prime Minister to Morocco. A controversial mapping of Western Sahara's resources was also agreed upon. Zhu Rongji, Prime Minister of the Council of State Affairs of the People's Republic of China, made his longest stay in Morocco on an African roundtrip that is to lead him to the environment summit in Johannesburg. The importance of Moroccan-Chinese relations was also underlined by the five new agreements signed in Rabat. The agreements principally renew the existing, ample cooperation between the two countries and are centred on development issues. With these agreements, the grand total of agreements signed between these two countries has arrived at fifty since the establishment of diplomatic relations in 1958. Among these agreements, 30 already have been finalized and about 10 more are at the moment reaching their finalisation. The five new agreements anticipate a closer economic and technical cooperation - made possible by a Chinese loan of 30 million Yuan - along with other cooperation related to matters such as the development of urbanism and housing. Mapping Western Sahara Chinese capital is already known to be involved in Moroccan phosphorous production in the occupied territory and China is one of the major importers of phosphoric acid from Morocco. The geo-chemical maps to be financed by China are to assess the composition of rocks, minerals, water and gas in Ghelmim-Smara and may result in the establishment of new mining activities within Western Sahara. POLISARIO Front, the Sahrawi liberation movement, earlier has warned against further Moroccan resource exploitation in Western Sahara. The movement, which forms Western Sahara's exile government, accuses Morocco of wanting to plunder Sahrawi resources, especially phosphorous, fish stocks and offshore oil. Also the UN holds that Moroccan exploitation of these resources are illegal, given that Morocco is not the administrative power of the territory in question. The Chinese-Moroccan agreements were signed by the Moroccan Secretary of Foreign and Cooperation Affairs, Taib Fassi Fihri, and by Zeng Peiyan, President of the Chinese Planning and Development Commission, along with Yang Wenchang, China's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Morocco's Prime Minister, Abderrahman Yusufi, and China's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Zhu Rongji, also participated during the signing ceremony. Sources: Based on Morocco govt, POLISARIO and afrol archives.
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