Africa-Press – Malawi. UNITED NATIONS (Sputnik) – Russia considers the current government in Mali to be legitimate and views cooperation with it as positive, Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said on Tuesday.
“We have long traditions of cooperation and friendship with Malian government – with previous ones and with the current one. For us, this is a legitimate government,” Polyanskiy said. “There are no doubts about this, and we cooperate with this [government] and we don’t see any reasons why we should not view cooperation with this government as something positive.”
Polyanskiy went on to say that Russia seeks to help the Malian people and is determined to do so. When asked to further comment on the existing cooperation between the two countries, Polyanskiy noted that “cooperation means cooperation in training.”
Polyanskiy pointed out that Russia is concerned that the Malian government has a symbolic control over the north of the country and now in the middle of the country as well.”
“We don’t think it’s normal. And we think that it is in the interest of the whole international community to help the Malian government to recuperate control over its territory, and to help it to fight terrorism because Sahel is a very dangerous region,” he said. The deputy envoy said any alleged involvement of the Wagner Group has nothing to do with any Russian officials nor is supported by the state.
“If it’s on the market, so then it’s up to any country to choose whether they cooperate or not cooperate with this company. And Mali is not an exemption of this kind. I don’t see any reasons why the Malian government can’t take their sovereign decision to engage with this military company or with another military company of these kinds from another country,” he said.
Earlier in December, the French Defense Ministry said Paris pulled out its troops from the city of Timbuktu in northern Mali, completing an eight-year military presence within the scope of Operation Barkhane, launched by France in 2014. The anti-terrorist operation is also supported by the G5 Sahel group, including Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger and Mauritania.[1 image]
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