Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan met Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates Nasser Bourita and Senior Advisor to King Mohammed VI André Azoulay in Rabat today.
Minister Balakrishnan and Minister Bourita affirmed the warm and friendly ties between Singapore and Morocco and welcomed further collaboration in areas of common interest such as climate change, sustainable development, education, trade and investment, as well as enhancing connectivity. Minister Balakrishnan welcomed Morocco’s interest to strengthen its engagement of ASEAN, and reiterated Singapore’s support for Morocco’s application to become a Sectoral Dialogue Partner of ASEAN.
Minister Balakrishnan and Minister Bourita signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Collaboration under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, a signal of intent of both countries’ commitment to mitigating climate change challenges. The MOU is aligned to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement which allows countries to voluntarily cooperate to achieve emission targets set out in their Nationally Determined Contribution. More information on the MOU is at Annex A.
Singapore and Morocco are also working together to provide technical assistance for Africa and will jointly organise a pilot programme on leadership and governance in October 2022. A Letter of Intent on cooperation in capacity building was signed between the Morocco Agency for International Cooperation and the Singapore Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Ambassador Director-General Mohamed Methqal and Singapore Ambassador to Morocco George Goh in Rabat today.
On the Western Sahara issue, Minister Balakrishnan explained that Singapore abides strictly by the principles and purposes of the United Nations (UN) Charter and relevant UN resolutions, including UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2602. Resolution 2602 states that the UNSC had taken note of the Moroccan proposal presented to the UN Secretary-General on 11 April 2007 and welcomed serious and credible Moroccan efforts to move the process forward towards resolution. Singapore also commends the efforts by the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for Western Sahara to engage all relevant parties.
During his visit, Minister Balakrishnan also met Minister of Industry and Trade Ryad Mezzour, Minister in Charge of Digital Transition Ghita Mezzour, President of the National Museums Foundation Mehdi Qotbi and business leaders.
Minister Balakrishnan delivered remarks to media at a joint press conference with Minister Bourita today. The transcript of Minister Balakrishnan’s remarks is at Annex B.
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MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SINGAPORE
4 JULY 2022
ANNEX A
MEDIA FACT SHEET ON THE MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING FOR COLLABORATION UNDER ARTICLE 6 OF THE PARIS AGREEMENT
1Corresponding adjustment is applied when one country agrees to transfer a mitigation outcome to another country and correspondingly subtracts the emission reduction from its own greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting.
For media queries on this MOU, please contact:
ANNEX B
Transcript of Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan’s Joint Press Conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates Nasser Bourita in Rabat, Morocco, 4 July 2022
Minister Vivian Balakrishnan: A very, very big thank you to my brother Nasser Bourita for the opportunity to visit this wonderful country and to commemorate 25 years of diplomatic ties between Singapore, a tiny city-state (on) the other side of the world, and the wonderful and historic Kingdom of Morocco.
Your gracious hospitality, and the warmth of the people of Morocco has greatly touched the hearts of my delegation members. I conveyed the good wishes of President Halimah Yacob of Singapore to His Majesty King Mohammed VI, and I had the honoured privilege of presenting to you just now the invitation from President Halimah Yacob for His Majesty King Mohammed VI to pay a State Visit to Singapore. His Majesty has been to Singapore before – his last State Visit was in 2005. But we think this is now a very opportune moment for him to honour us again with his presence in Singapore. As Minister Bourita has mentioned just now, we had a very productive, very open (and) sincere conversation. Morocco and Singapore are in different parts of the world. Both of us are gateways to respective areas of the world. Here in North Africa, in fact, beyond North Africa, the entire African continent and including Morocco’s ability to go across the Atlantic to South America (and) North America. On the other hand, the connection through Singapore to Southeast Asia, and to Asia in general. This is a relationship which has in fact been founded on very good diplomatic ties, but I think the economic dimension of it is just waiting to take off, and to take off significantly.
Of course, we also discussed additional areas. The first area was on climate change. Because Singapore is a small island, we are very concerned with climate change. It is an existential issue for us. Today, we have signed an agreement, an MOU, for collaboration under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement, which allows our two countries to voluntarily cooperate to achieve emission targets which are set out in our respective Nationally Determined Contributions. Collective action is needed by all countries if we are to overcome the challenges of climate change. As someone who spent many years on negotiations which led up to (the) Paris (Agreement), this is a meaningful area of collaboration between our countries. So for me, this means something significant.
The second additional area we discussed was how Morocco and Singapore will work together to provide technical assistance to Africa. Singapore and Morocco will jointly organise a pilot programme on leadership and governance in October 2022 – that is just a few months more. This course will be organised in Morocco and for African countries. The signing of the Letter of Intent signals our hope to conclude an MOU on technical cooperation for Africa soon. I want to thank Morocco again for partnering with us. I think this is another area where we can show the fruits of our cooperation.
I want to make one more reflection on something which has really struck me on my visit down here. That is the fact that Morocco represents the values of tolerance, co-existence and religious harmony. We were discussing just now that in Morocco, you consider this natural. But this wonderful attribute of Morocco is in fact unusual, special and precious. This is a message that Morocco needs to take to the world. That is the other reason why we hope His Majesty will visit us, to come to Southeast Asia and show that wonderful aspect of Moroccan society, history and tradition. When I first arrived in Casablanca, I had an opportunity to visit the majestic Hassan II Mosque. After that, I went to the David Hamelekh Synagogue in Casablanca. I also had discussions with the Senior Advisor to His Majesty André Azoulay. I should add (that) I also spoke to the rabbi in Singapore, who tells me his family comes from Morocco many centuries before. The key point he told me was how much they appreciated the leadership of His Majesty, his father, and his grandfather, in particular the way they protected the minorities during the Second World War when in fact, the easiest thing to do would have been to give in to force. Again, I just want to say how much we admire the leadership of His Majesty, and we look forward to hosting him and to hearing his message of peace.
We had a discussion on another issue which I know is of importance to Morocco, and that is the Sahara issue. Let me speak from the perspective of Singapore, which is a tiny city-state. Singapore abides strictly, and always, with the principles and purposes of the UN Charter, and the relevant UN resolutions, including the UN Security Council Resolution 2602, which we discussed just now. This resolution states that the Security Council took note of the Moroccan proposal for autonomy that was presented to the UN Secretary-General on 11 April 2007 and – this next part is important – welcome the serious and credible Moroccan efforts to move the process forward towards resolution. I would add that Singapore supports the serious and credible Moroccan efforts to move the process forward. Singapore also commends the efforts by the Personal Envoy of the UN Secretary-General Staffan de Mistura. I hope that he will be given access, and I hope that all the relevant parties will speak to him. Peace, prosperity and development is on the horizon. I think this issue has taken far too long to be resolved. It is our hope that you will be able to resolve it and make progress, and bring peace and hope to all the people.
Thank you again for this wonderful opportunity. I will just add that Morocco is a wonderful country, with wonderful people and amazing history. You have much to show to this world. Thank you.
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Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan’s meeting with Senior Adviser to King Mohammed VI André Azoulay on 4 July 2022
Photo credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan’s meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates Nasser Bourita on 4 July 2022
Photo credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan signing an MOU for Collaboration Under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement with Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates Nasser Bourita on 4 July 2022
Photo credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan delivering remarks at the joint press conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates Nasser Bourita on 4 July 2022
Photo credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dr Vivian Balakrishnan delivering remarks at the joint press conference with Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates Nasser Bourita on 4 July 2022
Photo credit: Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore
