It is a new wink from the United States to Morocco, since the Alauí kingdom moves chips on the regional board.The North American Combat Maritime Group Harry S. Truman crossed the Strait of Gibraltar to access the Mediterranean Sea in a routine deployment.Transit did it with a Moroccan frigate as an escort ... and in the absence of any Spanish Navy ship.After this episode, the US authorities highlight the close collaboration with their Moroccan "partner" and highlights its "shared objective" of "promoting security conditions in the region."

The Maritime Combat Group is made up of the USS Harry S. Truman and an "attack group" that gives it escort work during deployment.The ships departed from Norfolk, Virginia and Mayport on December 1 and were found in Atlantic waters.After crossing the ocean, they reached the Strait of Gibraltar this Tuesday, December 14, to enter the Mediterranean in compliance with their security and presence missions, considering the region a priority area for their interests and those of their allies.

The crossing of the Strait is an operation of military relevance, taking into account the size of the American group and the dense maritime traffic that is recorded in the passage;But it still has a greater symbolic burden to assume the natural access point to a convulsive Mediterranean, marked by the recent strap between Morocco and Algeria, Morocco and Spain, or the instabilities that are lived in Libya, among others.

The presence of the American group is part of the so -called 'military diplomacy', which serves as an approach to other allied nations and deterrence towards potential enemies.The first close gesture was to Morocco: the Frigate Allal Ben Abdallah (F615) was chosen to escort American ships in their transit through the Strait.

"It was a great experience for our team to navigate with the Royal Navy of Morocco," values the backward Curt Renshaw, commander of the group, in the note released by the US Navy."We share with our Moroccan partners the objective of promoting the conditions for maritime safety and stability in the region and disappointing or counteracting those who threaten security anywhere in the world."

Morocco's movements

The movement takes place in a context in which Morocco redouble the pulse to become the main power of the region.Its five -year program of arms renewal and defense capabilities is valued at 20,000 million dollars and includes the incorporation of helicopters, fighters and combat cars.An impulse with which he intends, at least, to match the capabilities of Algeria, his main competitor in North Africa and with which he has maintained recent tensions in which a prebelic climate was breathed.

But serious strap with Spain have also been recorded.Especially after the entrance of thousands of immigrants to Ceuta by irregular roads before the laxity of the Moroccan authorities, after the hospital admission of Brahim Ghald in a Logroño hospital.Rabat's priority focuses on the international community recognizing its sovereignty over Western Sahara -and has achieved first level diplomatic successes in this objective.However, he does not forget his interest in the Spanish enclaves located in Africa or close to his coast.So much so that a recent report from the Spanish Army urged to improve communications in the Strait to avoid "problems" of territorial control and sovereignty, as Vozpopuli said.

And in that pulse, the United States has chosen Morocco to complete the entrance of its maritime combat group into the Mediterranean.It is the last hug between two nations that in recent years have strengthened their ties in diplomatic and military matters.Washington's recognition of Rabat's sovereignty about Western Sahara opened the doors to a new collaboration scenario between both parties.The Pentagon sees its natural partner in the Kingdom to combat the instabilities that are lived in the Sahel, mainly jihadist terrorism, uncontrolled migratory flows or criminal activities.

The United States and Morocco have sealed that approach with several gestures loaded with symbolism, such as the joint organization of military macromaniobras African Lion.Rabat moves card on the board and finds in Washington a first order "partner" to achieve his goals.And they demonstrate it to the entire world with episodes like the one lived on Tuesday, with the escort of the Moroccan frigate to the American maritime group in its passage through the Strait.