The Russian President's Special Representative for the Middle East and African countries, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, received the Moroccan Ambassador to Moscow, Lotfi Bouchaara, «at his request». The talks focused on «current issues linked to the progressive development of traditionally friendly Russian-Moroccan relations», Russian diplomacy said in a statement on Monday, October 14. The two sides also discussed «maintaining an active bilateral political dialogue on issues of conflict resolution and ongoing crisis situations in the Middle East and North Africa», the same source added. This meeting comes five days after the October 9 meeting between Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Vershinin, and Algeria's Ambassador to Moscow, Boumediene Guennad. With the Security Council due to adopt a new resolution on Western Sahara on October 30, Morocco is mobilizing to convince Russia to vote in favor of the text, which will be proposed in the coming days by the United States to the fifteen members.
