Paris, Rabat (Morocco). After economic agreements formalized in October 2024, France and Morocco signed several cultural cooperation agreements during the trip of the Minister of Culture, Rachida Dati, in February 2025. Cinema, French language, libraries, archives and heritage sites are prominently in these agreements. France thus undertakes to provide Morocco with the expertise of the National Institute for Preventive Archaeological Research (INRAP) for “The joint conduct of archaeological operations” In Morocco, the Institute stating that Morocco wishes “Strengthen its legislative and operational framework” For preventive archeology. Still on the heritage side, an agreement provides for the intervention of the Center des Monuments Nationaux (CMN) to support the tourism development of several Moroccan sites. The first sites concerned are rock sites,, either“Ighoud, the Hercules caves in Tangier and the Calot’s cave in the Béni Snassen massif”details the CMN. The Minister announced the twinning of the Chellah site (ancient necropolis) with the castle of Chambord (Loir-et-Cher). The National Library of France and the National Center for Cinema and Live Image have also signed cooperation agreements with Moroccan institutions. Finally, agreements relate to video games and cultural and creative industries, with the opening of a “gaming city”.
A new step
These agreements are involved in a delicate regional context, that of the prolonged crisis between France and Algeria. Indeed, since the support expressed in July 2024 by Emmanuel Macron to the claims of Morocco on Western Sahara, relations between Algeria, France and Morocco had reached a breakdown. If Morocco has always been a privileged partner for the soft power French in the Maghreb, these agreements mark a new stage: Rachida Dati has indeed visited several cities of Western Sahara with its Moroccan counterpart. The Minister spoke of the opening of a French alliance in Laâyoune, the largest city in Western Sahara, while France has so far remained in a position of neutrality. She also visited the Antoine-de-Saint-Exupéry museum in Tarfaya, opened in 2004, where Paris will organize an exhibition. She pleaded for a strengthening of cooperation between France and Morocco to develop the region, which amounts to ratifying the Moroccan political project. Cooperation was also the central theme of declarations during this visit, because in Rabat the French Minister of Culture praised in her speech of February 16 “Ambitious public policies” In favor of culture in France and Morocco, and insisted on the links which unite the cultural circles of the two countries. Among the most famous personalities active in the matter is the writer Leïla Slimani, representative of Emmanuel Macron for the Francophonie.
The relationship with Morocco is therefore consolidated by these agreements, while that with Algeria remains complex. This official visit was also scrutinized in Algiers, in the midst of the crisis linked to the expulsions for OQTF (obligation to leave French territory) and while France demands the liberation of the writer Boualem Sansal. However, President Tebboune spared his criticism; He told Algerian media in March that friendship between France and Morocco “Do not disturb Algeria at all” while qualifying the official visits of Rachida Dati and Gérard Larcher, president of the Senate, in the Western Sahara of“Ostentators”. Since then, relations with France seem to be restored, but the presence of French institutions in the region remains a point of disagreement with Algeria.
