Nizar Baraka, Secretary General of the Istiqlal Party, and Rahal Al-Makawi, member of the Executive Committee and in charge of the party's external relations, received at the Istiqlal Party headquarters in Rabat Prof. Dr. Norbert Lammert, President of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and his delegation, Mr Roderich Kiesewetter, Member of the German Bundestag, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee and Rapporteur for the Maghreb Region of the Foundation, Gerhard Wahlers, Deputy Secretary General and Head of the International Department of the Foundation, and Mr Steffen Krueger, Resident Representative of the Konrad-Adenauer Foundation in Morocco.
This meeting was an opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved in the framework of bilateral cooperation between the Istiqlal Party and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and to discuss the future work plan, especially since there are distinguished and solid relations of cooperation and partnership that unite the two parties in several areas, including training, coaching, exchange of experiences and the organization of several seminars on current issues in Morocco.
The Adenauer Foundation and the Istiqlal Party are linked through training programmes for Istiqlal associations that aim to strengthen the advocacy capacities of youth, women and party officials. In addition, training activities organised by both parties for a number of African political parties have contributed to the strengthening of political and communication knowledge and skills.
This meeting was also an opportunity to discuss developments in the Kingdom of Morocco at all levels: diplomatic, political, socio-economic, climate and environmental.
The Adenauer Foundation and the Istiqlal Party also discussed the need to move to a new phase of cooperation based on building bridges of cooperation covering the territorial and development management dimension, which will mainly result in the related cooperation between the Moroccan regional councils and the German "Länder" with a view to contributing to the development of regionalisation in the Kingdom of Morocco.
