"As a former President of the National Assembly and former Minister of Ecology, I saw that the partnership between France and Morocco was very important for our two countries and that it was even useful both for Europe, the Maghreb and West Africa, and that it was useful in international bodies, particularly on subjects such as climate where France and Morocco are very active", underlined De Rugy in an interview with MAP.

He expressed the wish that this partnership "be continuously strengthened and deepened" in the interest of the two countries, both for Morocco which is developing a lot in the areas of industry, tourism, and infrastructure, and for France, which has every interest in renewing and modernizing its old ties with the Kingdom of Morocco, he noted.

According to the former French Minister of Ecology, ecological challenges are issues to which the two countries are "very committed", welcoming in this regard the personal commitment of HM the King within the framework of the Paris Climate Agreement.

"I could see when I was Minister of Ecology how HM King Mohammed VI was really very committed personally and on behalf of Morocco to advance the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement and concrete projects for the development of renewable energy, in particular solar energy, for the development of actions reducing greenhouse gases and also for everything related to urbanization”, he underlined.

In his view, the two countries will be able to cooperate in these areas, given their know-how, and the companies established in the two countries and which can carry out additional joint projects to meet the challenges of climate and of managing growing cities.

De Rugy affirmed that the Kingdom can really be a reference in the field of energy as it has already reached a high level of development concerning access to electricity, and the development of renewable energy with one of the leading solar projects in the world.