Morocco launches 'strategic dialogue' with the U.S.

The U.S. State Department has announced the first session of the strategic dialogue between Morocco and the USA will take place on Thursday:
 
"I can confirm that Secretary Clinton will meet Thursday, September 13, her Moroccan counterpart Saad El Dine Otmani. The two officials  will proceed together to launch the Strategic Dialogue between the United States and Morocco, "the deputy spokesman of the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs in the State Department, Andy Halus said.
 
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Youssef Amrani had alluded to this new stage of development of American Moroccan relations, during his visit to Washington last July, said it had seen in his U.S. interlocutors' willingness to go beyond the current framework to explore Morocco with new opportunities in the context of what are a the priorities and what we need to create in terms of the  innovative instruments of this bilateral relationship. "
 
Morocco is a major ally of the United States and of NATO, and the two countries have been linked by a free trade agreement since 2006.