Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Friday held a phone call focussing on bilateral relations, preparations for the third Russia-Africa summit and several regional issues, according to Russian diplomats.
In a statement posted on X, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the two officials reviewed priorities for developing relations between Rabat and Moscow, as well as preparations for the third Russia-Africa summit.
The talks also covered current regional issues and diplomatic coordination between the two countries, notably at the United Nations, the statement said.
The call comes almost a month after the two ministers met on September 25 in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s high-level week. They reviewed bilateral relations and regional and international issues of common interest at the time.
It also comes as the UN Security Council considers a draft US resolution on Western Sahara. Russia, a permanent member with veto power, abstained in the vote on Resolution 2797, adopted on October 31, 2025.
According to press reports, the new US draft would make Morocco’s autonomy proposal, in an expanded and updated version, the sole basis for negotiations on the dispute. It would also ask the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to complete, within six months, the registration of refugee populations in the Tindouf camps in southwestern Algeria.
The Russian statement does not say, however, whether the Western Sahara issue was raised during Friday’s call.
AK/Sf/lb/as/APA