Colombia Recognises Moroccan Sovereignty Over Western Sahara on Day One

Colombia · FOREIGN POLICY

Colombia’s new government recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara on Saturday and withdrew its recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, reversing four years of policy within a day of taking office and changing the arithmetic on a file that reaches the United Nations Security Council, where Colombia now holds a seat.

Bogotá and Rabat both framed the shift around trade. (Photo: Internet reproduction)

What Colombia actually decided

The announcement came out of a meeting in Cali between Vice-President José Manuel Restrepo, Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar and Morocco’s Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, who had travelled to Colombia for Friday’s inauguration. Bula Escobar said a formal communiqué would follow within hours.

The foreign ministry framed it as a reset rather than a rupture: with this decision, it said, Colombia seeks to revitalise its relationship with Morocco on the basis of a long-term vision, in the conviction that closer bilateral ties will fully serve the interests of the Colombian people. Bourita, for his part, called Colombia’s withdrawal of recognition from the Sahrawi republic and its recognition of Moroccan sovereignty “a historic decision that will give a great push to the bilateral relationship.”

Two things are worth separating. Recognising Moroccan sovereignty is one act. Withdrawing recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is a second, and it is the harder one to walk back. Colombia has now done both.

Why this is a genuine reversal, not a clarification

Colombia has been here before, and the earlier episode is often misreported. In October 2021, under Iván Duque, Vice-President and Foreign Minister Marta Lucía Ramírez said in Rabat that Colombia supported Morocco’s “territorial integrity” and that its embassy’s consular jurisdiction covered “all Moroccan territory, including the southern provinces.” Several outlets reported that as recognition. The foreign ministry then clarified that it was a consular arrangement, not a sovereignty statement, and reaffirmed support for the UN process.

Gustavo Petro moved in the opposite direction. His government restored relations with the Sahrawi republic in 2022, after a freeze dating to 2001, and as recently as November 2025 pledged “unrestricted” support for Sahrawi self-determination. Saturday’s announcement is therefore the first time Colombia has stated the recognition plainly, and it undoes a position held for four years.

The Security Council seat is what makes this more than symbolism

Colombia began a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council on 1 January 2026, elected the previous June with 180 votes. It is the eighth time the country has sat on the Council, alongside Bahrain, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Latvia and Liberia in the current intake.

That matters here because Western Sahara is a standing Council file. The mandate of MINURSO, the UN mission in the territory, comes up for renewal at the Council, and the wording of those resolutions is fought over line by line. A member that has just recognised Moroccan sovereignty votes differently from one that was pledging support for Sahrawi self-determination nine months earlier. Rabat has spent years assembling exactly this kind of incremental diplomatic weight, and a Council seat is the most valuable version of it.

What is actually at stake in the territory

Western Sahara is not empty desert. Morocco, counting the territory, holds roughly 50 billion tonnes of the world’s estimated 74 billion tonnes of phosphate rock reserves — about 70 percent of the global total. That is a reserves figure, not a production one: Morocco accounts for something closer to a seventh of world output. Phosphate is the input for fertiliser, which makes it an input for food.

The Bou Craa deposit inside Western Sahara, operated by Phosboucraa, holds around 800 million tonnes, roughly two percent of the combined Moroccan and Saharan reserve base, with capacity near 2.6 million tonnes a year. Figures putting Bou Craa at a tenth of Moroccan exports conflate it with a different statistic. The Atlantic coastline also supports a substantial fishery, which is what has kept the European Union tangled in litigation over trade and fisheries agreements that touch the territory.

What it signals about De La Espriella’s foreign policy

For readers watching Colombia rather than the Maghreb, the interesting part is the speed. This was settled in a meeting on the margins of the inauguration, before a cabinet had finished being sworn in, and it lands on the same side as Washington, which has backed Morocco’s claim since 2020. The day before, the State Department said it intended, working with Congress, to provide US$1 billion in security assistance to the incoming administration, and Colombia was folded into the United States’ “Shield of the Americas” anti-narcotics bloc.

Read together, those are the first coordinates of a foreign policy that is aligning quickly and visibly with Washington and its partners. Bula Escobar has also floated deeper economic ties with Morocco, without ruling out a future free-trade agreement. Latin America has historically split on Western Sahara, with several governments recognising the Sahrawi republic and others staying neutral; Colombia has now moved off the fence in the other direction.

What to watch next

The formal communiqué is the first thing. The wording will show whether Colombia is recognising sovereignty outright or endorsing Morocco’s autonomy plan as the basis for a settlement, which is a meaningfully weaker position and the one most Western governments have taken.

After that, watch Algiers. Algeria backs the Polisario Front and has downgraded relations with states that have made this move; Colombia closed its embassy in Algeria earlier this year, so there is less left to downgrade. And watch how Colombia votes the next time MINURSO comes before the Security Council. That vote, not the communiqué, is where this decision becomes consequential.

Frequently asked questions

Has Colombia recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara?

Yes. On 8 August 2026 the government of Abelardo De La Espriella recognised Moroccan sovereignty and withdrew Colombia’s recognition of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic. It was announced after a meeting in Cali between Vice-President José Manuel Restrepo, Foreign Minister Omar Bula Escobar and Morocco’s Nasser Bourita.

Is this a change from Colombia’s previous position?

Yes, and a sharp one. Gustavo Petro restored relations with the Sahrawi republic in 2022 after a freeze dating to 2001, and in November 2025 pledged unrestricted support for Sahrawi self-determination. An earlier 2021 statement by Vice-President Marta Lucía Ramírez was later clarified by the foreign ministry as a consular arrangement rather than recognition.

Why does Colombia’s position matter internationally?

Because Colombia took a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council on 1 January 2026 for a two-year term. Western Sahara is a standing Council file through the MINURSO mandate, so Colombia now has a vote on how those resolutions are worded.

Sources

• Infobae — Colombia reconoce la soberanía de Marruecos sobre el Sáhara Occidental
• El Espectador — Gobierno de De La Espriella reconoce soberanía de Marruecos
• El Heraldo — Gobierno de ADLE reconoce soberanía de Marruecos sobre el Sáhara occidental
• Cancillería de Colombia — Colombia asume su mandato en el Consejo de Seguridad
• USGS — Morocco and Western Sahara minerals yearbook

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