"Atlantic Africa has almost everything to be a zone of peace, stability and shared prosperity. At least, it has the potential," said MFA Bourita who recalled that since 2013, His Majesty King Mohammed VI called for "reviving the activities of the Conference of African Atlantic States and allowing it to play fully the role it deserves".

The process born in Rabat in 2009 is reborn today under a new light, "but with the same horizon that we share, from Cape Spartel to the Cape of Good Hope," said MFA Bourita, emphasizing the strategic importance of this space that is no longer to prove.

With 23 African Atlantic countries representing 46% of the African population, this space concentrates 55% of African GDP and its economies achieve 57% of continental trade, he said, considering this space as an area of mobility and a place of cultural and ethnic mixing. "Our maritime spaces contain enormous biological and non-biological resources," he said.

The Minister said that Atlantic Africa is a space of covetousness and competition, facing unprecedented security challenges, with the rise of asymmetric threats, transnational crime, maritime insecurity, piracy, terrorism and organized crime.

In this sense, the Minister noted that nearly 90% of maritime incidents, including piracy, were recorded along the continental Atlantic coastline, estimating that "our continent which suffers 48% of victims of terrorism in the world sees the terrorist threat is established along the Atlantic coast”.

MFA Bourita also said that transnational crime is both a cause and a consequence of the weak security network, the weakness of the state presence, the porous border and political and institutional instability.

Atlantic Africa is breaking records in terms of climate vulnerability, noted MFA Bourita, adding that the coastalization of our activities exacerbates environmental issues, with major consequences on food security and displacement with nearly 1.4 million internally displaced persons recorded for the West African region alone.

"Global warming is leading to an annual rise in African Atlantic waters of nearly 3.6 millimeters, directly impacting economic activities and coastal life," said MFA Bourita, recalling that the development of a climate early warning system would, according to the International Monetary Fund, reduce the risk of food by 30% on the continent, including the Atlantic coast.

In addition, there are the challenges of human development, economic development, sustainable development and development in general, added the Minister, noting that the African Atlantic countries receive only 4% of FDI flows to the Atlantic area against 74% for the countries of the northern shore and this, despite the growing economic potential of Atlantic Africa.

"We condemn ourselves to not reap the potential of our space, if we do not mobilize its potential for cooperation. For it is not enough to share the Atlantic. It is also to share a perspective, a vision and actions," said the Minister, insisting that this space is geopolitical, have a strategic identity and act collectively, to meet the imperatives of security, sustainable development and prosperity in this area.

MFA Bourita highlighted the need to structure the African Atlantic space, stressing that the declaration to be adopted at the end of the 1st Ministerial meeting of the African Atlantic States "establishes the (Afro-Atlantic) process of Rabat", African capital of culture this year, and Atlantic capital too.

The declaration “enshrines our vision, institutionalizes our approach and structures our space. It is, in fact, oriented towards the impetus of coordination on a set of strategic themes and structuring sectors and establishes three thematic groups, responsible for political dialogue and security, the blue economy and maritime connectivity and energy, and finally sustainable development and the environment”.

"It reactivates the Permanent Secretariat of the Conference, based in Rabat," added MFA Bourita, noting that this initiative does not want to compete with other regional organizations, or African Atlantic configurations.

"We want it to be perceived as it is, that is to say, an inclusive dynamic for a process of political governance of our common Atlantic space, in its broadest sense," noted MFA Bourita noting that this ambition is not only to reactivate the mechanisms of the past, but to overcome them. The ambition of the Rabat Process is to enable Africa to take ownership of the Atlantic, to formulate common positions and, ultimately, to achieve the junction with the countries of the other side of the South Atlantic-Latin America.

"Our vision is to recognize that the issue is no longer to be riparian countries that turn their backs on the Atlantic," said Bourita, adding that the Atlantic is not only a limit and a source of challenges, it is also a culture, a consciousness and a maritime identity.

In this sense, the Minister called to disseminate the spirit of the Atlantic, among our sectoral departments, economic agents and companies, and to set up this space in strategic and economic pole, area of connection, cooperation and union.

"If the Atlantic brings us together from the outside, let it also be what unites us from the inside," he said, adding that "every June 8, we will have two events to celebrate: that of the day of the oceans; and that of the re-launch of the African Atlantic Process in Rabat".