Morocco has reportedly decided to send military aid to Ukraine after the US secretly convinced Rabat to transfer spare parts for T-72 tanks to Kyiv. If true, this would make Morocco the first African country to provide military assistance to Ukraine.
On December 6, ‘Africa Intelligence,’ a leading publication about African government and corporate affairs, reported that Washington convinced Morocco to deliver spare parts for T-72 tanks to Ukraine through secret diplomacy.
The Royal Moroccan Armed Forces have several dozen T-72B/BK-type tanks purchased from Belarus between 1999 and 2001. These include 136 T-72B and 12 T-72 BK tanks.
Apart from that, Morocco has a massive arsenal of tanks sourced from various manufacturers, which include 384 American-made M1A1 and M1A2 Abrams, 150 Sino-Pakistani VT-1A Al Khalid tanks, as well as hundreds of American M48 and M60 Pattons, and 116 Austrian SK-105 tanks held in reserve.
T-72B with ERA bricks (Wikipedia)
As per reports, Ukraine had asked Morocco for spare parts for its T-72 tanks in 2015, which is not the first time Kyiv will engage with Rabat on this issue.
However, the present time is different, as the alleged transfer of spare parts will be happening amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, placing Morocco on the side of Ukraine in the ongoing conflict, which is a position Rabat was trying to avoid until recently.
Initially, Rabat tried to maintain a neutral stance by abstaining during the UN General Assembly’s March 2022 vote to deplore Russian aggression in Ukraine. Morocco was among the 25 out of 54 African states that abstained or did not vote in that UN resolution.
In recent years, the African continent has been Russia’s foreign policy priority, with Moscow establishing new ties and refreshing its alliances formed during the Cold War when the former Soviet Union supported socialist movements across Africa.
After the Soviet Union’s disintegration in 1991, it mainly withdrew from Africa. However, since around 2007, Russia has been increasing its political, military, and other economic involvement in the continent.
The Kingdom of Morocco has close commercial ties with Russia, with the former being the latter’s largest trading partner in Africa. This explains why Rabat may have hesitated to jeopardize its relations with Russia over a conflict far away in Eastern Europe.
That said, the latest development of Morocco, having reportedly agreed to send Ukraine spare parts for tanks, may come as a setback for Moscow, which is regarded as one of the major geopolitical players on the African continent.
However, it is essential to note that Morocco has historically been close to the US, with the former being one of the first countries to recognize the United States in 1777.
Observador Saharaui 