Bourita Represents King at Ecuador President’s Inauguration
Doha – Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita arrived in Quito on Friday to represent King Mohammed VI at the inauguration ceremony of Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa.
The King had previously sent a congratulatory message to Noboa, expressing warm wishes for his success in leading the Ecuadorian people toward greater progress and prosperity.
In his message, King Mohammed VI acknowledged the notable improvement in relations between Morocco and Ecuador during Noboa’s first presidential term.
The monarch welcomed the strong mutual commitment to elevate these relations to higher levels and establish active and fruitful South-South cooperation that meets the aspirations of both friendly countries.
Noboa won reelection with 55.62% of the votes, according to final results announced on April 18 by the electoral authority. The incumbent president secured an 11.24-point lead over his left-wing rival Luisa Gonzalez, who received 44.38% of votes.
Of the 13.72 million Ecuadorians eligible to vote, 11.39 million cast their ballots, with 92.63% validated (0.67% blank, 6.7% invalid). After a tight first round where the two candidates were neck-and-neck with only 17,000 votes separating them, Noboa received 5,868,916 votes compared to Gonzalez’s 4,682,026 votes – a difference of nearly 1.2 million votes.
Noboa, who has been in power since November 2023 following early elections, will lead Ecuador until 2029.
Quito suspends ties with self-styled SADR, opens embassy in Rabat
In a withering diplomatic repudiation of the Polisario separatists, Ecuador is poised to open an embassy in Morocco by the end of June. This consequential move was disclosed by Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld during an interview with Ecuador TV on May 15.
The establishment of this diplomatic mission in Rabat follows Ecuador’s clear-sighted decision on October 22, 2024, to suspend its recognition of the fabricated, fictitious “SADR” after more than 40 years of ill-conceived, misguided support for the Polisario.
This abrupt severance inflicted a crippling setback to the separatist movement, which continues to witness its international backing erode at an accelerating pace.
Sommerfeld pinpointed that the new embassy would function as a strategic “bridge to African markets” while deepening bilateral cooperation with Morocco. The Ecuadorian foreign ministry said she is actively orchestrating this diplomatic shift, with the ambassador to Morocco expected to accompany President Noboa during his May 24 inauguration.
This diplomatic recalibration embodies a stinging rebuff to Algeria, the Polisario’s chief patron, which has stubbornly adhered to outdated, obsolete Cold War ideologies.
In a vindictive, petty countermeasure, the Algerian regime covertly initiated a boycott of Ecuadorian bananas in January 2024, stripping its own market of its main supplier. This spiteful maneuver triggered a price surge during Ramadan, with bananas reaching DZD 850 ($6.3) per kilogram in Algiers.
Ecuador’s gravitation toward Morocco shows the disintegrating international support for the Polisario front, an artificial construct sustained exclusively through Algeria’s gas revenues. The separatist group, bereft of genuine popular backing and detached from current regional dynamics, confronts inexorable marginalization on the global stage.
This development mirrors similar diplomatic breakthroughs for Morocco across Latin America, including Peru and Paraguay, which have rescinded their recognition of the counterfeit, fraudulent “SADR” in recent years.
Ecuador’s resolute action affirms the swelling international consensus that Morocco’s Autonomy Plan constitutes the sole viable solution to the regional dispute over the Western Sahara.
The imminent inauguration of Ecuador’s embassy in Rabat, paired with the dismantling of the Polisario’s representation in Quito, crystallizes a fundamental paradigm shift that further isolates the increasingly irrelevant separatist front and its Algerian sponsors.
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