The naval exercises conducted by Morocco off the Canary Islands are taking place in "well-defined and very remote areas from Spanish waters," assured the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, after the concerns expressed by the government of the archipelago.
Patrol boats of the Royal Moroccan Navy would collaborate with drug traffickers in the Strait of Gibraltar to smuggle hashish into Spain.
Navantia has not received any orders from the Moroccan authorities for the construction of submarines for the Royal Moroccan Navy.
The Spanish Navy frigate "Santa María" carried out a series of counter-terrorism exercises with the Moroccan Navy ship "Sultan Moulay Ismail", as part of NATO’s "Sea Guardian" operation.
The Director of the Civil Guard, Leonardo Marcos, reaffirmed on Wednesday from Ceuta the willingness of the armed institute to "strengthen" the "magnificent cooperation" with the Moroccan security forces in the field of prevention and fight against terrorism, organized crime and drug and human trafficking.
The Spanish army is more powerful than the Moroccan one, especially in the naval field, despite the various acquisitions of military equipment and defense systems by the Royal Armed Forces (FAR) in recent years.
The Spanish Navy frigate "Méndez Núñez" and the Moroccan Royal Navy frigate "Tarik Ben Ziyad" are participating together in the NATO Passex-type exercise.
The U.S. Embassy in Morocco announced on August 26 the arrival at the port of Agadir of the USS "Paul Ignatius" (DDG 117) ship to participate, alongside the Moroccan frigate "Sultan Moulay Ismail," in the naval exercise Atlas Handshak (23-1).
Navantia will start on July 3, at its San Fernando site, the construction of the high-altitude patrol boat Avante 1800, ordered by the Royal Moroccan Navy. The announcement was made on Saturday by María Jesús Montero, the Spanish Minister of Finance and Public Function.
Navantia San Fernando will launch the construction work of the high-altitude patrol boat ordered by Morocco as early as this summer, more precisely in July.
The Royal Moroccan Navy and the Italian Navy recently conducted a joint naval exercise off the coast of Tangier, a sign of the excellent cooperation between the two countries in the field of maritime security.
Morocco attaches importance to the modernization of its army. The Special Forces of the Royal Navy have recently received new French Verney-Carron VCD-15 assault rifles.