Laayoune: The symposium, held by Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and the Timbuktu Institute – African Center for Peace Studies, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Glorious Green March, aims to establish Moroccan-Senegalese relations as a ‘testing ground’ for pan-African cooperation based on knowledge, innovation, and shared responsibility.

According to Agence Marocaine De Presse, representatives of the Timbuktu Institute and UM6P, along with researchers, experts, and institutional decision-makers from Morocco and Senegal, highlighted the deep historical ties between the two countries. These ties have been forged through centuries of economic, intellectual, and spiritual exchanges.

Participants at the symposium also endorsed the strategic ambition of the Atlantic Initiative, led by the Sovereign, which seeks to leverage the Atlantic region as a catalyst for stability, sustainable development, and regional integration.

The symposium attendees expressed their belief that Morocco’s Southe
rn provinces serve as a natural bridge between North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. They emphasized their commitment to transforming the Rabat-Dakar axis into a pan-African model of sustainable cooperation.

The Laayoune Declaration outlines four key areas of cooperation: academic mobility, strategic and forward-looking African research, the promotion of the historical and symbolic role of the Southern provinces, and the support of entrepreneurship, innovation, and food sovereignty.

Beyond its programmatic content, the Laayoune Declaration reaffirms the role of Morocco’s Southern provinces as a convergence point between the Maghreb and sub-Saharan Africa. It envisions a new dynamic of African development based on knowledge, sustainability, and technological sovereignty.

By selecting Laayoune as the focal point for this vision, the two sides endorse the region’s prominent role in South-South cooperation dynamics and in reshaping African intellectual relations.