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afrol News, 24 February - The regional powers Senegal and Morocco are signing agreements of closer cooperation at the expense of their neighbours. A direct ferry connection is to bypass traffic from Mauritania, and Senegal enhances its support of Morocco's occupation of Western Sahara. This has been announced as the result of a meeting between Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and Moroccan King Mohammed VI during the French-African summit i Paris this weekend. The two countries, which also are France's most stable allies in Africa, have had a long tradition of political cooperation. President Wade and King Mohammed VI are to have agreed on strengthening both the political and economic cooperation between Senegal and Morocco, which, in contrary to the public image they nurture, are among the poorest countries in their respective regions. An important result of the Paris summit was an agreement to create a new company of maritime transports. The company is to be established by Moroccan and Senegalese capital, and according to the intentions, will traffic the route between Casablanca, Nouadhibou, Dakar and Guinea-Bissau. Vessels are to transport both passengers and goods. The route itself says much about the deal's intentions. Main ports will be Casablanca, Morocco's economic capital, and Dakar, the Senegalese capital. On the 2000 kilometres route between these two metropolises, the ferry is only to stop in Mauritanian Nouadhibou, a town at the country's northern border with Western Sahara, without road connection to the capital, Nouakchott. No stop is to be made in the Mauritanian capital. Morocco is already strongly involved in the Senegalese transport sector. After the bankruptcy of Senegalese company Air Afrique, the new Air Senegal was established as a cooperation project between Morocco and Senegal in 2001. Royal Air Maroc owns 51 percent of the shares in Air Senegal and Casablanca has increased its importance as a regional hub. Several joint Senegalese-Moroccan transport initiatives have been launched during the last years. A common feature in these initiatives is to strengthen Morocco's connection to Europe at the Strait of Gibraltar, while making the Moroccan-Senegalese link the principal entrance to sub-Saharan Africa. The Senegalese and Moroccan governments hope that the new ferry connection, in addition to the airline cooperation, also will increase traffic between the two countries, and thus also their bilateral trade. Governmental schemes to increase cooperation in education and agriculture are also being promoted. Despite all these government initiatives, Senegal is still not to be found on the list of Morocco's leading 30 export markets. The great prestige put in the economic ties between Rabat and Dakar or not based in economic realities - a cooperation with neighbouring and resource-rich Mauritania would have had a greater potential for both - but almost entirely on Moroccan and Senegalese regional power ambitions and on their geopolitical cooperation. The cooperation is, among other things based on the joint hatred against the poor desert state of Mauritania, which is annoyingly located between the two countries and has a higher living standard than Senegal in spite of its widespread poverty. Ethnic conflicts between Senegal and Mauritania - not freed from certain racist Mauritanian practices - at several occasions have led to armed confrontations between the two neighbours. Morocco has a stained relationship with Mauritania due to the Kingdom's occupation of Western Sahara since 1975. Earlier Mauritanian governments cooperated with Morocco in the annexation of Western Sahara, but the current government in Nouakchott recognises the Saharawi exiled government formed by the liberation movement Polisario. President Wade, elected to power in 2000, has turned Senegal into Morocco's strongest ally on the African continent. Mr Wade in Paris was quoted to have stated that Senegal "gives its unconditional support to Morocco" in the Western Sahara conflict. Earlier, the Senegalese President also has said he considers the deputed territory Morocco's southern provinces - which is contrary to a large number of UN resolutions on this issue. Last year, Mr Wade also launched another giant Moroccan-Senegalese project, which he wanted the new African development cooperation NEPAD to finance: An all-year highway from Dakar to Morocco, including a tunnel to Spain under the Strait of Gibraltar. Some 850 kilometres of the road of course would go through Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara. While this giant road and tunnel project does not seem to have caught the interest of other African states - most Africa rejects Moroccan claims over Western Sahara - the new ferry connection is to provide a new outlet for Senegalese and Moroccan aspirations. According to Mr Wade, Moroccan and Senegalese authorities are already discussing technical solutions and there are efforts to provide the planned company with government and private funds.
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