France lifts Morocco visa restrictions after World Cup game

• Catherine Colonna said regular consular ties had been restored with Morocco.
• There was a yearlong dispute over France’s decision to cut visas for Moroccan visitors.
• France and Morocco played in the World Cup semifinals in Qatar on Wednesday.

Catherine Colonna, France’s foreign minister, said regular consular ties had been restored with Morocco after a yearlong dispute over France’s decision to cut visas for Moroccan visitors.

France and Morocco played in the World Cup semifinals in Qatar on Wednesday.

France won the highly anticipated match, which prompted scrutiny of Morocco’s relationship with its past colonial masters and dual nationals. Morocco is the first Arab and African country to reach the World Cup semifinals.

“Our goal is to boost human contacts between France and Morocco and strengthen the deep interlinks between our two societies,” Colonna said in Rabat.

France, under public pressure to curtail undocumented immigrants, declared last year it will reduce the number of visas granted to Algerian, Moroccan, and Tunisian nationals because those nations refuse to take back their illegally dwelling residents in France.

The visa conflict has made it difficult for their family in Morocco to visit them, according to the French Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies.

Nasser Bourita, Morocco’s foreign minister, said France’s decision to normalize relations “goes in the right way”

Bourita said France unilaterally abolished visa restrictions after unilaterally imposing them.

There were public and affected party reactions. He said, “Everyone knows this.”

“Today’s decision to restore normal consular contacts is again a unilateral decision that Morocco respects,” he said.

Both ministers emphasized that the two countries were key economic, educational, and security partners and had the same views on many African and Middle Eastern issues.

France’s return from Morocco was unclear.

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