p Tunisia, a French protectorate for 75 years, proclaimed independence in 1956. The same year the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations with it. Tunisia was well aware of the Soviet Union’s principled course and its solidarity with the national liberation struggle of the oppressed peoples. On 19 June 1952 thirteen Arab and Asian states 93 asked the UN Secretariat to convene a Special Session of the General Assembly to examine the Tunisian question and the USSR promptly supported their request. The Seventh Session of the UN General Assembly included the Tunisian question in its agenda. The situation in that country was studied in detail at the plenary meetings of tiie Assembly and in the First Committee in spite of the French delegation’s allegations that the UN was not competent to discuss the Tunisian question. The Soviet representative emphasised that his delegation which upheld the principle of the equality of all peoples, big or small, and recognised the right of all nations and peoples to self-determination, would support proposals aimed at protecting the rights of the Tunisian people. By speaking up in defence of the national liberation struggle of the Tunisian people, the USSR seriously helped them to achieve state independence.

p In 1957 there was an exchange of delegations between the USSR and Tunisia, and in July that year the two countries signed a trade agreement. Several years later, in August 19(31, the USSR and Tunisia signed an agreement on economic and technical cooperation. Soviet-Tunisian contacts began to develop.

p Tunisia won political independence, but its people could not consider themselves fully free so long as foreign military bases and tens of thousands of foreign troops remained in the country. The movement for the withdrawal of French troops began to gain in intensity in Tunisia. On 8 February 1958 the French Air Force bombed the Tunisian village Sakiet Sidi Usef on the border with Algeria, killing 80 and wounding 130 people. This attack evoked indignation in Tunisia and throughout the world. In May 1958 the French bombed the positions of Tunisian forces in the south of the country, and in July 1961 French bombers and naval units bombed and shelled the port of Bizerta. Tunisia and France became locked in a major military conflict.

p The USSR promptly came out in support of the Republic. The Soviet delegation requested the Security Council to examine its proposal to condemn the act of aggression against the Tunisian Republic as a threat to peace in the Mediterranean and a violation of the UN Charter, to put a stop to this aggression and make France withdraw its troops from Tunisia.

p This proposal was backed by socialist arid developing 94 Countries. France was compelled to order a cease-fire, but its air and naval forces continued to violate Tunisian air space and territorial waters. The French troops also held on to their base in Bizerta. Thereupon 38 African and Asian countries and Cuba, Yugoslavia, Cyprus and Brazil submitted a fresh proposal, which was supported by the USSR, saying that French aggression against Tunisia should be discussed at a Special Session of the UN General Assembly.

p On 25 August 1961 the General Assembly adopted a resolution demanding that France should immediately order a cease-fire and withdraw its troops to their initial positions. The resolution recognised Tunisia’s sovereign right to demand the withdrawal of all French armed forces and called upon the French and Tunisian governments to enter into immediate negotiations to devise peaceful and agreed measures for the withdrawal of all French armed forces from Tunisian territory. The imperialist powers and countries dependent on them abstained from voting.

p Thanking the Soviet Union on behalf of the Tunisian people for supporting their national liberation struggle the President of Tunisia Habib Bonrguiba wrote in a telegram to the Soviet Government on 24 August 1961 that he and the Tunisian Government were deeply moved by its manifestations of friendship and solidarity, lie went on to say that the Tunisian people became especially aware of these feelings of sympathy when the Soviet delegation in the Security Council and at the General Assembly adopted a most lucid and noble stand in support of Tunisia.

p The Tunisian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs who visited Moscow in August 19(51 thanked the Soviet Union on behalf of the Tunisian people and government for supporting Tunisia in its struggle against the aggression.

p The relentless and firm demands of progressive forces compelled France to pull its troops out of Tunisia. In October 1963 the last foreign soldier left the base at Bizerta and that enclave of colonialism in Tunisian territory ceased to exist.

p Henceforth, political relations between Tunisia and the USSR began to expand. In Juno 1963 a Tunisian parliamentary delegation visited the Soviet Union, and in March 1964 95 the Tunisian Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs paid an official visit to the USSR in the course of which he discussed the prospects of Soviet-Tunisian relations witli Soviet statesmen. At the end of 1964 the two countries signed their lirst long-term trade and payments agreement which stimulated their trade relations.

p A special role in deepening and expanding the friendly Soviet-Tunisian relations was played by the visit of Alexei Kosygin to Tunisia in May 1975. On the eve of this visit the Tunisian Secretary of State for Information noted that the Tunisian people had profound sympathy and respect for the cause to which the Soviet Union was devoted, for its efforts to achieve the triumph of the policy of peaceful coexistence and its human concern to rid the world of the threat of war.  [95•26  In the course of their talks the leaders of the two countries expressed their satisfaction with the state of relations between the USSR and Tunisia which were developing on the basis of equality, respect for sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, and mutual benefit. They also examined a broad range of questions of mutual interest and expressed their desire to strengthen and expand cooperation.

p On 15 May 1975 L’Action, the central organ of the ruling Destour Party (PSD), noted that the Soviet Union’s peace policy played a decisive role in international detente, particularly in the efforts to create a stable and just peace in the Middle East.

p The Tunisian public highly assessed Alexei Kosygin’s visit. La Presse de Tunisie, which published the Communique of the PSD leadership on the visit, wrote that it could be regarded "as symbol of durability of the links between the Tunisian and Soviet peoples, ties which are characterised by sincere and fruitful cooperation between the two countries designed to promote mutual interests in all spheres—- economic, social and cultural".  [95•27  This was a correct conclusion which attested to the broad prospects lying before TunisianSoviet relations.

p The next North African country with which the Soviet Union established diplomatic relations (in 1958) was the Kingdom of Morocco. At the Seventh Session of the UN 96 General Assembly in 1952, the Soviet representative in the First Committee said that the USSR delegation, adhering to the principle of equality of all peoples, big or small, and recognising their right to self-determination, would support proposals designed to safeguard the legitimate rights and aspirations of the Moroccan people. At the Eighth, Ninth and Tenth sessions the Soviet delegation vigorously contributed to ttie solution of the Moroccan question in a manner that would benefit the people of that country. On 2 March 1956 Morocco achieved political independence. But survivals of colonialism remained in Morocco—the Tangier International Zone which the imperialists had annexed from Morocco in 1912, and French and US troops and bases.

p In 1945 France invited the USSR and the USA to participate in the administration of Tangier. The USA consented but the USSR firmly declined the offer even though it had the formal right to accept it, and began to work energetically for the termination of the international administration of Tangier and its reunification with Morocco.

p On 9 October 1956 the USSR issued a statement in connection with the International Conference of Tangier in which it expressed the hope that the Conference "would create no obstacles to the speediest and real reunification of Tangier and Morocco, and the abolition of the international regime, and would contribute to the final settlement of the question of Tangier on the basis of full respect for Morocco’s sovereign rights to Tangier".  [96•28  The Soviet Union’s support for Morocco’s just demands tilted the scales in favour of the newly free Moroccan state. On 29 October 1956 the Conference adopted a Declaration in which France, Britain, the USA, Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Portugal agreed to "the abolition of the international regime of the Tangier Zone and declare abrogated ... all the acts, agreements and conventions concerning the said regime".  [96•29  In keeping with this declaration Tangier was returned to Morocco. The USSR Foreign Ministry Statement of 11 December 1956 noted that the Soviet Union recognised Morocco’s 97 sovereign rights to Tangier, and that all the earlier international agreements concerning Tangier were invalid.

p In many respects the further development of SovietMoroccan relations was promoted by the establishment of trade relations between the two countries. A protocol on the list of commodities earmarked for reciprocal deliveries was signed at Rabat on 18 April 1957, and a year later, on 19 April 1958, trade and payments agreement between the two countries was signed in Moscow. Other important agreements envisaging a considerable expansion of trade and cooperation in various branches of the economy, culture and science were signed in 1965 and 1966. Soviet-Moroccan trade turnover increased almost 25 times between 1958 and 1973. Scientific, technical and cultural links expanded considerably.

p Exchange visits of statesmen and public figures strengthened the links of friendship and mutual understanding between the countries. Soviet-Moroccan relations were seriously stimulated by the visit to Morocco in February 1961 of Chairman of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet Leonid Brezhnev. This visit consolidated the progress that had been achieved by then in the relations between the two countries.

p An important role in this respect was played by the visit of the head of the Moroccan state King Hassan \\ to the Soviet Union in October 1966. The negotiations which took place in Moscow ended in the conclusion of agreements on economic, cultural and scientific and technical cooperation, on cooperation in the fields of television and radio, and on deliveries of Soviet machines and equipment to Morocco. The agreement on deliveries was renewed in 1970 and 1974. The Soviet Union agreed to assist Morocco in building a number of industrial and power projects, and to send Soviet geologists and geophysicists and specialists in the fields of secondary, higher and vocational education to that country.

p In 1969 the Soviet Union said that it was prepared to help Morocco carry out its five-year economic development plan. USSR-Morocco and Morocco-USSR friendship societies were founded in 1970 and 1971 respectively.

p The visit of Premier Alexei Kosygin to Morocco in October 1971 further strengthened the relations between the two countries. Agreements on maritime navigation and the 98 construction of a number of hydropower stations and dams with Soviet assistance were signed during the visit. The Joint Soviet-Moroccan Communique issued at the time noted that "both sides expressed their satisfaction with the strengthening relations of friendship and mutual understanding between the Soviet Union and Morocco and also with the expansion of their economic and trade cooperation. They expressed their desire to strengthen this cooperation.”  [98•30 

p The realistic approach to the development of international relations and mutually beneficial cooperation in diverse fields in spite of the difference in social systems, created a firm base for the expansion of Soviet-Moroccan relations. They tend to hasten the achievement of national objectives  .nd deepen mutual understanding between the peoples of both countries.

An important step in this direction was made by the visit of the Moroccan Prime Minister Ahmed Osman to the USSR in March 1978. The long-term agreement on economic and technical cooperation in the phosphate industry which was signed during the visit ushered in a new stage in the development of mutually beneficial Soviet-Moroccan business relations. In Morocco this agreement was called the "contract of the century" because it markedly stimulated the Moroccan economy. During their talks Ahmed Osman and Alexei Kosygin agreed that it was necessary to keep on deepening detente and extending it to all parts of the world. It should be noted, however, that Morocco’s foreign policy is somewhat inconsistent. This is borne out in particular by the participation of Moroccan forces in the events in Zaire in 1977-78.