Russia has taken on a vital sector of strategic interest to Morocco and Algeria in North Africa. Taking advantage of the international energy crisis, which combines soaring hydrocarbon prices and the demand for non-polluting green energy, Moscow has offered the two central Maghreb countries the construction of nuclear power plants, seawater desalination plants and power stations at very competitive prices. For various reasons, both Algiers and Rabat are finalizing agreements for the acquisition of these strategic plants with Russian constructors.
Russia’s TASS news agency announced Wednesday that Russia has approved a project to help Morocco build nuclear infrastructure. The project, which had been under negotiation for almost five years, has finally been accepted by Moscow and will be carried out by the Russian giant ROSATOM. It was signed in 2017 during former Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Morocco, as part of a wide-ranging package of 11 bilateral cooperation agreements. The final endorsement for this agreement has been ratified by the current head of the Russian government, Mikhail Mishustin, along with 14 other bilateral agreements. Moscow will not only build nuclear power plants and desalination plants, but will also train Moroccan technical and scientific personnel to manage them.
PHOTO/DMITRY ASTAKHOV ASTAKHOV/LREMLIN via AP – Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin
Morocco already has a nuclear reactor dedicated to research, the TRIGA Mark IIwhich is considered a model by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for the African continent.
Despite the announcement by the TASS news agency of the approval of this cooperation agreement between Moscow and Rabat, Morocco does not rule out a partnership with France or Israel for the production of electricity from nuclear power plants.
In order not to upset the fragile geopolitical and strategic balance in North Africa between Algeria and Morocco, Russia is studying the possibility of developing electricity production in Algeria based on nuclear energy.
PHOTO/ ILLINOIS DISTRIBUTED MUSEUM – TRIGA Reactor
On 30 August, the Algerian Minister of Energy and Mines received the new Russian ambassador to Algiers, Sem Valerian Shuvaev, with whom he discussed bilateral cooperation in these matters. For the time being, however, it is only a matter of cooperation studies. Algeria has two experimental nuclear reactors, one, Essalam, in Ain Usera, built by China in 1993, and the other, NUR, in Draria near the capital, built by Argentina in 1989. For the time being, no official information has been made public about the conclusion of agreements between Algiers and Moscow in the field of nuclear weapons.
Russia’s penetration into this strategic and extremely sensitive area in the Maghreb has an undeniable political component: while for Algiers it is simply an extension of the strategic-military cooperation agreements between the two countries, for Rabat it is an opportunity for rapprochement with Russia, a permanent member of the Security Council, where the Western Sahara issue, which has been at stake between Morocco and Algeria for almost half a century, is being settled.
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