Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told a UN Security Council meeting on Thursday that Morocco considers the management of maritime straits a responsibility rather than a form of ownership, calling for an international initiative to develop a code of conduct for countries bordering such passages. Bourita was speaking at a meeting held under the Arria formula and organized by Bahrain under the theme ‘Safe Seas, Shared Security: protecting freedom of navigation in an evolving security environment.’
Bourita said Morocco is not merely a coastal state but bears direct responsibility for managing and securing the Strait of Gibraltar, one of the world’s most important shipping lanes. He noted that nearly 100,000 vessels transit the strait each year — roughly 300 ships a day, or one every five minutes — with traffic five times greater than the Suez Canal, eleven times greater than the Panama Canal, and nearly three times more intense than the Strait of Hormuz.
The minister said Morocco does not regard its geographic position as a privilege or a tool of pressure, but rather as an international responsibility and a lever for cooperation, stability and development. On that basis, he announced Morocco’s call to launch a reflection on drafting an international code of conduct for freedom of navigation, arguing that international waterways must remain open, safe and predictable.
Bourita proposed that Morocco host, in coordination with Bahrain, an international forum aimed at strengthening adherence to international law, encouraging the exchange of best practices, and ending what he described as the polarization between states that claim ownership of strategic passages and those seeking to exploit them for coercive purposes.
The minister added that seas and oceans constitute essential global infrastructure that, despite their critical importance, remain fragile and vulnerable to competing ambitions and malicious intent.