Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita is set to sign a memorandum of understanding on the Silk Road partnership with his Chinese counterpart in Beijing, as part of a two-day working visit to China.

Bourita arrived in China on Thursday. During his visit, the minister will meet Chinese Vice Premier Yang Jiechi and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi before signing the memorandum.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said that China gives “great importance” to the visit of the Moroccan minister.

Bourita is expected to meet with several Chinese leaders, said the official, who expressed his country’s desire to ensure that this visit “can contribute to the exchange of ideas on bilateral relations, international and regional issues of common interest as well as the deepening of cooperation and the consolidation of relations of friendship, able to support the strategic partnership ties between the two countries.”

One year after King Mohammed VI’s visit to China, the two countries are opting to reinforce their cooperation.

For China, Morocco is “a natural bridge and an appropriate platform for the intensification of investment and trade relations between China and Africa,” stated the Chinese press agency Xinhua.

But it is also a way to “preferential access” to the markets of 55 countries (1.2 billion consumers), with which Morocco has concluded free trade agreements (including the European Union, the United States, and the Arab countries), it added.

As the main trading partner of nine Arab countries, China is collaborating with these countries on developing emerging sectors such as finance, aerospace, and new energies.