King Mohammed VI is expected to visit France in the third week of January 2027, a date proposed by the Élysée to the Moroccan Royal Cabinet, with Paris and Rabat set to sign an unprecedented bilateral treaty, French weekly La Tribune Dimanche reported, citing a diplomatic source.
The exact dates are expected to be validated in the coming weeks, according to the newspaper, which described the visit as highly anticipated on both sides of the Mediterranean.
La Tribune Dimanche said the treaty is almost finalized, with the committees working on it holding their last session on 21 September.
Modelled on the Quirinal Treaty France signed with Italy in 2021, it would be the first such treaty between France and a non-European country, the newspaper added.
The proposal narrows down a calendar that had remained open for weeks. On 8 September, Africa Intelligence reported that the visit had been pushed back to early 2027, with January being discussed with increasing insistence but no firm commitment.
The newspaper noted that the French presidential election, due on 18 April and 2 May, could weigh on the timetable, as Macron cannot run for a third consecutive term.
French Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu had already described the treaty as the first of this kind France would sign with a country outside the European Union, during his visit to Rabat for the 15th Morocco-France High-Level Meeting on 16 July, according to the French Embassy in Morocco.
Lecornu said at the time that a committee of French and Moroccan advisers was working to set the two countries' common future in a unique, stable and ambitious framework, and described the results of the meeting as exceptionally positive in all areas.
The visit and the treaty come two years after France's shift on the Sahara in July 2024, when Macron said in a letter to the King that the present and future of the territory fall within the framework of Moroccan sovereignty, and that the autonomy plan is the only basis for a political solution.
In Morocco, the proposed dates would come after the formation of a new government following the 23 September parliamentary elections, won by the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM), and the opening of the new parliamentary session in October.
It is worth noting that the treaty would take relations beyond the "reinforced exceptional partnership" declared by the two heads of state in Rabat in October 2024, giving the two countries a permanent framework for political, economic, and security cooperation.
