Morocco Will be the First African Country to Send Aid to Ukraine
According to reports from Ukrainian state media agency Ukrinform, Morocco will become the first African country to send military aid to Ukraine. The kingdom will send spare parts for T-72 tanks to Kyiv. With reserves of spare parts in former Eastern bloc countries dropping and NATO countries remaining reluctant to provide Western tanks as aid to Ukraine, this aid will be especially vital.
The Royal Moroccan Army has a significant, internationally sourced arsenal of tanks which includes 136 T-72B and 12 T-72BK tanks purchased from Belarus between 1999 and 2001. In addition to this, the nation fields 384 M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams, as well as 150 Sino-Pakistani VT-1A Al Khalid tanks. Hundreds of American M48 and M60 Pattons, as well as 116 Austrian SK-105 tanks held in reserve.
The Moroccan decision was reportedly made at the request of the United States which have been secretly negotiating with Rabat. Historically, Morocco, which was designated as a major US non-NATO ally back in 2004, became one of the first countries to recognize the United States in 1777. The formal agreement signed between the US and Morocco after the conclusion of the American War of Independence in 1786 is described by the State Department as “the longest unbroken relationship in US history”. Relations generally remained warm throughout the entirety of the past 250 years and while Morocco officially remained neutral in the Cold War, it clearly aligned itself closer to America and the West.
At the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Rabat initially tried to maintain a neutral stance and chose to abstain during the UN General Assembly’s March 2022 vote to condemn Russia’s invasion. Rabat had close commercial ties with Moscow with Morocco being Russia’s largest trading partner in Africa. However, this stance has shifted with time and Morocco went on to attend an April summit on defending Ukraine held in Germany and chaired by US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
While Washington has continuously pressured Rabat to take a stronger stance, domestic perception of Russia also fell with many blaming Moscow for rising regional food prices. In May, Russia sent foreign affairs minister Sergei Lavrov to Morocco’s nemesis Algeria where he declared both states “see eye to eye on all key issues of international politics”. Meanwhile in June, a court of the separatist Donetsk government sentenced Moroccan citizen Brahim Saaudun to death. Both of these cases did little to improve Russia’s standing in Rabat.
Header image: File photo, Royal Moroccan Armed Forces