SPAIN and Morocco have signed deals on managing migration and boosting Spanish investment in Morocco.

The deals inked on Thursday were among 20 agreements reached at wide-ranging meetings aimed at turning the page on diplomatic tensions linked to the disputed Western Sahara.

Morocco is an ally to Western powers in fighting extremism and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez applauded what he described as a trust-building step at the signing ceremony in Rabat.

The documents included an €800 million package to encourage investment by Spanish firms in Morocco, two memorandums on migration and several deals for education and job training, among other agreements.

The meeting also included a repeated commitment to eventually opening customs offices on the border crossings at Spain’s North African enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla, which Morocco doesn’t officially recognise as European territories. 

The Spanish government’s visit is seen as an effort to mend fences with Morocco after a flare-up in tensions over the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony annexed by Morocco in 1975.

Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch praised the “renewed dynamism of our relations.

“We are establishing the basis for the type of relations between Spain and Morocco for the present and the future ... based on mutual trust,” Mr Sanchez said.