Dr Bakary Sambe, president of the Timbuktu institute: “The next session of the Grand Commission will give new impetus to Senegalese-Moroccan cooperation”

The 15th session of the Senegalese-Moroccan Joint Commission will be held from January 26 to 28, 2026 in Rabat (Morocco). In this interview, Dr Bakary Sambe, author of the work “African Morocco, trajectories of continental ambition”, deciphers the foundations, achievements and prospects of bilateral cooperation between Dakar and Rabat. Between historical heritage, strategic convergence and sporting news, he looks back on the solidity of a partnership set to strengthen.

Interview conducted by Aliou Ngamby NDIAYE

Senegal and Morocco are holding, from January 26 to 28, 2026, the 15th session of the Grand Joint Commission between the two States. What are the key sectors that traditionally structure the work of this Large Joint Commission?

During the various sessions of the Commission, working groups examine the state of bilateral cooperation and develop short-term programs. These will be the subject of future cooperation protocols after each session. There is thus a set of legal instruments governing formal cooperation between the two countries. These instruments affect all areas of activity: the economy, social, culture, science, etc. On the commercial level, an agreement of February 13, 1963 regulates trade between the two countries. This, on the basis of the reciprocal granting of import and export authorizations. The rapid development of trade and the strategic nature of cooperation in various areas require the revision and, above all, the strengthening of legal frameworks and mechanisms.

How do you assess the evolution of cooperation between Senegal and Morocco with regard to the 14 previous sessions?

I will always remember when the Senegalese national daily “Le Soleil” analyzed the evolution of this cooperation, on the eve of the visit of King Mohammed VI, in May 2001, to Dakar. An analysis which perfectly sums up this development by evoking “a perfect symbiosis, a bilateral alliance rarely equaled in South-South cooperation”. In addition to a treaty of friendship and cooperation concluded in 1963, the two countries were already linked, at the time, by at least eight other agreements and four conventions. These legal instruments are constantly reinforced by several protocols.

Unlike other agreements and conventions signed between the Southern States the day after official visits and which are quickly filed away in the archives without much effect, those between Senegal and Morocco benefit from extraordinary follow-up on the continent, as demonstrated by the holding of the Commission.

It is a living cooperation, constantly irrigated by the shared desire to go ever further. Senegal and Morocco are in permanent consultation on several African and international development issues.

To do this, a special permanent committee ensures the proper functioning of cooperation and the application of the various agreements and treaties signed between the two countries. But the advent of the reign of King Mohammed VI has, in an unprecedented way, accelerated this cooperation by giving it more substance, but above all a new impetus which has made possible an exceptional strengthening of this relationship to which the economy, massive investments in the banking and financial sectors have given real substance.

This is the whole meaning of “African Morocco” that I analyze in my work of the same title and recalled by the press release from the royal cabinet last Thursday, January 22. On March 27, 1964, in Dakar, the Establishment Convention between Senegal and Morocco was signed under the visions of the first Senegalese president, Léopold Sédar Senghor, and King Hassan II.

What is the importance of this document in bilateral cooperation?

We could argue, without risk of being mistaken, that the most significant founding act in the history of bilateral relations between Senegal and Morocco was the Establishment Convention signed on March 27, 1964. It was initialed during the historic visit of His Majesty King Hassan II to Senegal during which he inaugurated the Great Mosque of Dakar built by his personal architect, a certain Gustave Collet. It will be ratified, on the Moroccan side, in 1965.

This convention, which Timbuktu Institute has just celebrated throughout 2025, is so important that the two heads of state have granted the Institute their joint high patronage. In its first article of section 1, it clearly states: “Without prejudice to agreements entered into or to be entered into between the two contracting parties, nationals of each party may access public employment in the other State under the conditions determined by the legislation of that State”.

Morocco is thus the only state in the world where a Senegalese can, in principle, access jobs reserved for nationals and vice versa.

Senegal and Morocco played in the final of Can 2025 which was held in Rabat. Can the lever of sports diplomacy strengthen political and diplomatic relations between the two countries?

Sport, especially football, has become the place of all passions, even those unleashed by temporary misunderstandings. But, I remain convinced that whatever the stakes of a Can final, it will only be, as time goes by, an infinitesimal sporting parenthesis in the long course of a history made of natural affinity on the basis of a lot of shared symbolic and historical resources of which the two peoples and their political leadership are fully aware.

The unfortunate incidents and the debates that followed were an opportunity for collective therapy. They revealed to us that an achievement always needs to be consolidated, especially over time and with the emergence of new generations in the two countries, not necessarily connected to the common history or nourished by the symbolic resources which underlie a relationship which has survived all the regimes and political changes in Senegal and Morocco. And so it will be with all superficial misunderstandings. But it will necessarily be necessary to educate and make the respective peoples more aware of the content and meaning of the relationships that unite our two countries. I always tell diplomats from both countries, however precious it may be, no amount of good should destroy this bond.

Tension was noted during this final won by Senegal in Rabat. Can this session of the Grand Joint Committee help to dispassionate this episode?

What is extraordinary about this almost sacralized relationship is that it can count on “guardians of the temple” indefinitely. This epiphenomenon should not cause alarmism to the point of losing sight of the existential issue of South-South cooperation serving as a model on a continent-wide scale. In addition to goodwill, the responsible and proactive declarations of the political leadership of the two countries show that there is a clear common awareness of a sacred bond to be preserved.

This is evidenced by the successive press releases from Minister Cheikh Niang, the Zaouia Tijaniyya of Fez and countless symbolic figures of this relationship. Moreover, after the elegant congratulations and tributes paid to the Moroccan people and their Sovereign by the President of the Republic, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, the telephone exchanges between the two Prime Ministers Aziz Akhannouch and Ousmane Sonko, the soothing and wise tone of King Mohammed VI in the recent press release from the royal palace has just closed the door to all the birds of ill omen. Given its context and the common understanding of the issues, the next session of the Grand Committee will give new impetus to the exemplary nature of Senegalese-Moroccan cooperation.