Denmark shows support for Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara

The Danish country has thus become the eighteenth European country to endorse Morocco’s proposal for the region as the most serious and credible way of settling the Sahrawi dispute, which has lasted almost five decades since Spain’s departure from the territory as a colonial power.

The Nordic country thus joins a long list of over 100 countries that support Morocco’s project for Western Sahara.
‘In support of autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, the Kingdom of Denmark considers the Autonomy Plan proposed by Morocco in 2007 as a serious and credible contribution to the ongoing international process and as a solid basis for a mutually agreed solution between all parties’, the Moroccan Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated on the Danish position.

This new position of the Kingdom of Denmark was announced after a meeting between Nasser Bourita, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Morocco, and his Danish counterpart, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, in New York, on the margins of the High Level Week of the 79th Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN).

This Danish decision represents a new diplomatic triumph for Morocco in reaching a sphere, such as Northern Europe, which is of interest to the Moroccan kingdom in terms of international support.

Morocco continues to gain international support for its territorial integrity, as the Moroccan kingdom considers Western Sahara to be part of its southern provinces. The North African country presented its Autonomy Plan for Western Sahara to the UN Security Council in 2007, which continues to receive a growing wave of support.

The plan envisages broad autonomy for the Sahrawi territory under Moroccan sovereignty, giving the Sahrawi authorities a broad capacity for action and leaving defence and national policy in the hands of the Moroccan state. All this while respecting the relevant UN resolutions.

Morocco’s proposal has been widely welcomed internationally. More than 100 countries support the initiative, including powers such as the United States, France, Germany, the United Arab Emirates, Israel and Spain, which consider the initiative to be the most serious, credible and realistic way of resolving the situation.

On the opposition side, the Polisario Front, supported by Algeria, proposes holding a referendum on independence for the Sahrawi population, which is difficult to implement due to problems such as the establishment of the electoral roll, as various analysts have pointed out, and which enjoys much less international support.

On this point, Algeria continues to support the Polisario Front’s pro-independence stance, which undermines Morocco’s alleged territorial integrity, and continues to clash with the Moroccan kingdom, with which it broke off diplomatic relations in August 2021, citing ‘hostile acts’ by the Kingdom and major political differences on issues such as Western Sahara.

Denmark, already last August, came out in favour of Morocco’s autonomy initiative as the most viable option for settling the Western Sahara situation, and now officially becomes the eighteenth European country to support the Moroccan proposal as the most reliable of all, following Slovenia, which in June also came out in favour of the Moroccan proposal for the Sahara.

Morocco plans a major development of Western Sahara at all levels, and this is attractive to countries on the international stage, which see the Moroccan proposal as the best option for the Sahrawi territory. All this within a broad consensus on the need to reach a political agreement between the opposing parties involved in the issue, including Algeria, within the framework of the United Nations.

Morocco has made it very clear that its proposal is the best for Western Sahara, and this is what the Moroccan authorities have stated in their latest interventions, such as that of Aziz Akhannouch, Moroccan Prime Minister, and Minister Nasser Bourita at the United Nations headquarters.

According to Aziz Akhannouch, the growing support for Morocco sends a ‘clear message to the other parties and to the United Nations that the time has come to move towards a political solution based on this framework, through a series of roundtables and UN Security Council resolutions’.