Since the post-Brexit association agreement between Morocco and the United Kingdom took effect in 2021, trade between the two countries has more than doubled, reaching £4.7 billion in 2025. But for London, the relationship now reaches well beyond commerce — into infrastructure, energy, water, health, education, defense, culture, and joint ventures across Africa. In an interview with Médias24 in Fès, the UK’s ambassador to Morocco, Alex Pinfield, laid out Britain’s priorities and why he believes a partnership that has gathered pace over the past five years still has considerable room to grow.
What Brexit changed
Pinfield frames the association agreement itself as the central shift. Once the UK left the European Union, it negotiated a framework governing trade and investment directly with Morocco — and that framework, he says, has allowed two-way trade volumes to climb to today’s £4.7 billion, more than before. He is candid that this is a floor rather than a ceiling: alongside stronger commercial ties, the political relationship has deepened, and with Morocco’s 2030 horizon approaching, he sees significant scope to push the partnership further still.
What has struck him most since arriving roughly ten months ago, he says, is the economic momentum visible across the country. Having travelled to Agadir, Casablanca, Marrakech, Tangier, Tétouan, Chefchaouen and beyond, he describes a pace and scale of development that he believes makes Morocco an attractive proposition for British firms — a sense that projects are genuinely being built and that much more is still to come.
Where Britain wants to plug in
Asked how the UK can support Morocco’s heavy investment in infrastructure, energy, water and industry, Pinfield points to a recent trade mission that brought some fifty British companies to Morocco, accompanied by the UK’s trade minister and the prime minister’s trade envoy. The delegation spanned architecture and design firms, specialists in managing major sporting events, and companies working in crowd management, fan zones, ticketing, security, legal and financial services, and national communications — areas, he notes, where British expertise runs deep and where the 2030 World Cup is an obvious near-term driver.
But he is keen to stress the breadth beyond stadiums. The UK plans to bring another business delegation later in the year focused specifically on healthcare, and British companies are interested in Morocco’s energy transition. British universities and schools, some already present, are looking to expand. He cites a water-management project in the Saïss plain near Fès — backed by the UK government alongside the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and other partners — which he visited that morning, meeting a farmer whose access to irrigation now sustains his family’s livelihood. That, he suggests, is the model of concrete, on-the-ground cooperation the two countries can build on.
A less visible footprint — by design
On why British investment is less conspicuous in Morocco than that of France, Spain or China, Pinfield argues visibility is being built rather than absent. Britain may historically have kept a lower profile, he concedes, but part of the explanation is structural: UK firms tend to concentrate in services, education, finance, design, project management, legal work and public relations — sectors that are less physically visible than, say, large construction. He expects that in the coming years more British companies will be seen succeeding and investing in Morocco.
Politics, the Sahara and the south
Pinfield describes the UK–Morocco political relationship as being on very solid footing — a positive for both countries that, in his view, enables more across trade and investment alike. He says he wants to see the relationship grow in every region of Morocco, and that good projects British firms can identify in the southern provinces would be welcome for both sides. In the south specifically, he points to interest in new solar and wind plants and in the cabling needed to transmit electricity, with some British companies already in discussions — a signal he reads as positive.
Beyond trade: tourism, defense, culture
The partnership, Pinfield emphasizes, is now far more than commercial. Britain sent a record 1.4 million visitors to Morocco last year, and direct transport links are expanding — including a new maritime route connecting Agadir, Casablanca and London — serving both tourists and business travelers.
Defense and security form another pillar. The UK works closely with Morocco’s security services and the Royal Armed Forces, maintains a defense section at its embassy, and runs an annual joint military exercise, Jebel Sahara, which marked its 25th anniversary last October and takes place each year in the Marrakech region. Culture rounds out the picture: in the Fès medina, a British Council–supported creative hub housed in a restored riad offers English-language learning alongside training in painting, performing arts and traditional crafts. Pinfield also underlines the longstanding friendship between the two royal families as an important thread.
Financing, the World Cup, and Africa
On the £5 billion facility from UK Export Finance, Pinfield says the support is ready, available and already in use, on terms he considers generous relative to many other countries. The main condition is that a portion of any project draw on a UK-linked supply chain, though other partners can be involved. Notably, the envelope can be tapped not only for projects inside Morocco but also by Moroccan firms pursuing ventures elsewhere in Africa, and by British–Moroccan partnerships on African infrastructure — which he presents as proof that the relationship extends beyond the two countries to the wider continent.
He expects the 2030 World Cup to change the scale of Britain’s presence, while cautioning that Morocco’s development vision is “much broader than football” and looks toward 2035, 2040 and beyond. He calls Morocco’s Atlantic-facing Royal Atlantic Initiative creative and ambitious, and frames the kingdom’s geostrategic position — underscored by that new Agadir–London link — as an important part of Britain’s thinking.
Asked how he will measure success in three years, Pinfield lists more trade and investment, more tourists, more English learners, and more British schools and universities opening campuses — but insists the real test is deeper and strategic. In a world reshaped by shifting supply chains, critical minerals, artificial intelligence, climate change and conflict, he argues, the UK and Morocco can act as genuine strategic partners, bound by shared interests, values and objectives.
