Mauritania did not take part in the ministerial meeting, held on Saturday December 23 in Marrakech, between Morocco and Sahel countries : Mali, Chad, Niger and Burkina Faso. «An absence which takes place in the middle of good Mauritanian-Moroccan diplomatic relations», noted a media outlet in Nouakchott. On the sidelines of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum, held on December 20, the Moroccan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Bourita, met with his Mauritanian counterpart, Mohamed Salem Ould Merzoug. «The meeting was an opportunity to exchange points of view on a certain number of issues of common interest», wrote the Mauritanian Foreign Minister on X (Twitter formerly). Nouakchott has always been invited to meetings on the Sahel region. In September 2010, the southern neighbor took part in the creation in Algeria of the Tamanrasset Coordination. In February 2014, Mauritania was a founding member of the G5 Sahel, launched by France.
