• Morocco and North Macedonia signed a diplomatic training MoU on July 21 in Skopje.

• The deal includes joint programs and expertise exchanges.

• It supports Morocco’s regional outreach and North Macedonia’s EU goals.

Amid increasingly complex geopolitics, Morocco and North Macedonia have signed a memorandum of understanding on diplomatic training. The deal, signed on Monday, July 21, in Skopje, is a strategic move for Morocco to extend its influence and for North Macedonia to build its administrative capacities.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita and his Macedonian counterpart, Timčo Mucunski, signed the partnership. It establishes a framework for cooperation based on reciprocity, including joint programs, lectures, and the exchange of best practices between the two ministries.

The agreement provides for professional training, expertise exchanges, high-level interventions, and comparative analyses. The goal is to support the upskilling of both countries’ diplomatic corps and modernize their institutions.

Through its Moroccan Academy of Diplomatic Studies, Morocco seeks to strengthen its outreach in Southeastern Europe. North Macedonia, which is engaged in a European Union accession process, is relying on such partnerships to enhance its international visibility.

Irina Bokova, the former Director-General of UNESCO, emphasized in a 2017 speech that soft power is a major component of contemporary economic diplomacy. The Macedonian-Moroccan partnership is part of this strategy of influence through cooperation.

The success of the agreement will depend on its operational implementation, including a coherent training schedule, quality teaching modules, diplomat engagement, and the integration of the program into each ministry’s strategic priorities. Similar initiatives, such as the partnership between the diplomatic academies of Tunisia and Germany, have proven their value through skill exchanges and accredited internships.

In the longer term, effective implementation of these agreements, with monitoring indicators, could help measure their impact. Prospects for expanding cooperation to other strategic sectors, such as trade, technology, or climate transition, are also being discussed.

Félicien Houindo Lokossou (Intern)