Karen Hughes - Partnership Between US & Morocco

The Partnership Between the United States and Morocco

Karen Hughes, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Foreign Ministry
Rabat, Morocco
June 5, 2006

[Following welcoming remarks by Foreign Minister M. Mohamed Benaissa]

Under Secretary Hughes: Thank you so much Mr. Minister and thanks to all of you for your hospitality. I am really here to celebrate and encourage and commend the very significant reforms that His Majesty the King is pursuing; to celebrate the very special partnership between the United States and Morocco. I've reminded the boys and girls as I've seen them that it is especially important for us. Morocco, as you well know, is the first country to recognize my country, the United States of America....

Under Secretary Hughes: We had a very open and honest dialogue. We had a wide range of discussions about the important partnership between the United States of America and Morocco. It is a very important partnership and I commended the Minister for the leadership of His Majesty the King and in enacting so many democratic reforms, additional rights for families, additional opportunities for NGOs, the many things that Morocco is doing that we see as a model for the Arab and wider Islamic communities throughout the world. So I commended the Minister for the progress that the King is making. We discussed a lot of, a wide ranging group of issues. We talked about the importance of people to people exchanges; of what my job is about, including people to people understanding, and greater dialog in fostering understanding and respect. Respect for the other as we discussed. And we talked about ways to do that through exchange programs, through English language teaching, through a wide variety of means that both the Minister and I are very supportive of. Thank you.

Released on June 6, 2006

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