In its bid to develop a local military industry and to reduce the country’s dependence on foreign manufacturers, The North African Kingdom of Morocco proposes to enter into partnerships with global leaders. The latest move in this direction is its MOU with Brazil to share military technology. The agreement was signed when the Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita visited Brazil last week. Morocco has already signed similar deals with Spain and UK.In a statement, British trade minister Liam Fox said his country saw promising prospects to develop cooperation with Morocco in defence industry. According to Moroccan source, a joint venture is in pipeline between Morocco and the UK’s Chemical Military Product (CMP), an ammunition manufacturer. The project is worth 300 million dirhams with Morocco owning 10% of the company’s capital. WIth Spain Morocco is exploring the scope, of joint ventures was in fields relating to military aircraft and ship military hardware.
The country also has plans to diversify its defence partners. As part of its drive to diversify, Morocco’s minister delegate to defense Abdeltif Loudiyi held talks Monday (June 17) with Pakistani Chief of Staff Zubair Mahmood Hayat on the means of stepping up the exchange of expertise and know-how. According to the Strategic Defence Intelligence reports, Morocco’s defence budget is projected to increase from $3.5 billion in 2018 to $3.9 billion by 2022, recording a growth rate of 2.80%.It is expected to continue imports of advanced arms and ammunitions such as fighter and training aircraft, ships, missiles, tanks, and frigates etc to strengthen its armed forces. Morocco’s strategy to beef updomestic military industry capabilities should be viewed in the context of the surge in instability in North Africa and a constant arms race with Algeria. Morocco’s advanced military procurement is expected to make Morocco’s military forces as Africa’s leading army by 2022.
