Moroccan, Latin American Parliaments' Speakers Meet over Fostering Bilateral Ties

Rabat - Speaker of the House of Representatives Habib El Malki and Speaker of the House of Advisors Hakim Benchamach held talks, on Wednesday in Rabat, with Speaker of the Latin American Parliament Jorge Pizarro Estéban on means to strengthen relations between the legislative institutions.

According to a joint statement from the two houses of parliament, this meeting was an opportunity for both parties to underline the dynamism which characterizes the relations of friendship and cooperation between the Moroccan parliament and its Latin American and Caribbean counterpart. The two sides welcomed the initiative to create a parliamentary forum that includes the parliaments of the countries of Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean, as a space for joint action and a mechanism for parliamentary political dialogue for the promotion of debates and for African and Latin-American parliamentary consultations on priority strategic questions.

It concerns the setting up of a parliamentary diplomacy to explore the means and the possibilities of regional integration and reinforcement of south-south cooperation, in accordance with a strategic, participatory, integrated, solidarity-based development perspective, which is based on fostering economic and commercial interests and human ties between Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. The two parties also considered that this meeting reflects their effective commitment to the implementation of the forum's constitutive declaration. In the same context, the two parties agreed to organize two events, namely a symposium dedicated to the speakers of regional and continental parliaments, next July, and an international symposium, next September, to debate issues of a common nature and mark the effective launch of the Africa-Latin America and the Caribbean parliamentary forum.