Following on May 14's "The mystery of Morocco’s missing king", from Barron's June 4:
Morocco's King, After Long Trips Abroad, Works To 'Restore Authority'
Morocco's king has embarked on a whirlwind of public activities, which observers say aim to "restore the authority" of the monarchy, as international media have questioned his prolonged absences from the country.
Royal watchers say King Mohammed VI spent about 200 days outside the North African country in 2022, mostly in France and Gabon.
In March, he returned from another, three-months-long stay in Gabon as a guest of his friend President Ali Bongo, coming home on the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
He has not left Morocco since, but his lengthy absences in recent times have raised questions among some Moroccan commentators and in the international media.British news weekly The Economist published a report entitled "The mystery of Morocco's missing king" in April, which detailed his close ties with a trio of German-Moroccan brothers, two of whom are mixed martial arts stars, and how are known for their extravagant lifestyles.
Over the past two months, since coming back to Morocco, the 59-year-old king has engaged in a flurry of public appearances.
They have ranged from attending religious sermons during Ramadan, meeting with charities and addressing the issue of water shortages to presiding over the council of ministers and appointing new senior officials.
The king has also been seen inaugurating construction sites, a medical centre in Casablanca, a new university hospital in Tangier and a vocational training institute near Rabat.
The objective is "to restore the authority of monarchical power, which depends less on the regular functioning of institutions than on the physical presence of the king", said Omar Brousky, an academic and journalist from the Orient XXI website....
....MUCH MORE
And though the deals with Israel are more numerous, the big one with China might be more important. From Reuters via Nasdaq, June 1:
Chinese EV battery maker Gotion mulls factory in Morocco
Morocco's government and China-based battery maker Gotion High Tech have agreed to look into setting up an electric vehicle battery plant in the kingdom with up to $6.3 billion in eventual investment, Morocco's investment agency said.
The agency, AMDIE, gave no details on when a final decision on the plant would go ahead but said the two sides were looking at a factory with a production capacity of 100 gigawatts.
Reuters was the first to report Morocco was negotiating an EV battery plant in July 2022.
Moroccan officials have often pitched the kingdom as a good location for very large EV battery factories because of its existing automotive and renewable energy sectors and the presence of raw materials including cobalt and phosphates....
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In addition to the size of the investment for the battery plant, the phosphate (fertilizer) mention is intriguing. It has nothing to do with batteries but Morocco and 80% Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara sit on 75% of the world's phosphate resource. Additionally as noted in July 2021's "China & Egypt Strengthen Belt And Road Collaborations Including The Suez Canal International Logistics Zone"I'm beginning to see a pattern here.*
"China will buy Turkey on the cheap"
Why Turkey is Important
And the Panama Canal:
China Will Help Panama Secure the Canal Against Terrorists
And
all of a sudden you have China on-site on three of the world's MAJOR
shipping chokepoints and what could very well become the fourth at the
Bering Straits.
....It's just that, as we've seen over the last year, supply lines are fragile, a weak spot even without unfriendlies doing an interdiction.I suppose somebody should keep an eye on Morocco to note if the Chinese set up camp on the Straits of Gibraltar.
Should someone actively attempt to halt transportation it would make the Ever Given snafu look like child's play. As just one example, China has been very active in extending their belt and road initiative in Panama, including a $1.4 billion bridge over the canal and rail and other infrastructure.
And that's just one potential flashpoint. The Chinese influence in Brazil, hitherto based on VALE and iron ore could potentially go exponential as Brazil expands/modernizes its shipping and rail infrastructure. And then there's Australia...and...
Make of all that what you will but I'll repeat the outro from the 2021 post:
I suppose somebody should keep an eye on Morocco to note if the Chinese set up camp on the Strait of Gibraltar.
