By The Moscow Times | Created at 2025-04-03 14:00:27 | Updated at 2025-04-04 08:40:51
18 hours ago
Russia's army is deepening its military cooperation with Mali, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday, as the foreign ministers from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger visited Moscow.
"Defense cooperation is developing intensively: our servicemen are actively cooperating with Mali's military and personnel training is being carried out," Lavrov told Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop.
Moscow is hosting foreign ministers from the three Sahel nations amid a broader push to expand its influence in Africa. The countries are led by military juntas that seized power in coups between 2020 and 2023.
Since those coups, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have distanced themselves from former colonial power France and moved closer to Russia, which has sent mercenaries to help them fight a jihadist insurgency.
At the start of the year, the three countries withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), accusing the bloc of being subservient to France, and formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). Originally established as a defense pact in 2023, the AES now seeks closer political and economic integration.
They quit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the beginning of the year, accusing the regional bloc of being subservient to France, and have formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), originally set up as a defence pact in 2023 but which now seeks closer integration.
The group is in Moscow for a summit with Lavrov, which the Russian foreign minister called a step toward "strengthening the whole suite of our relations."
Diop praised Mali's cooperation with Russia and announced that Malian President Assimi Goita would visit Moscow in June. Niger's Foreign Minister Bakary Yaou Sangare described the summit as a "historic event."
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