From Bamako, Russia tries to consolidate its presence in Africa

The Russian Foreign Minister visited Mali. He wanted to consolidate relations between Moscow and Bamako, but also to encourage Africans to free themselves from Western influence.

This Monday and Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was on an official visit to Bamako, Mali. During the meetings of the head of Russian diplomacy, there was talk of the partnership between Mali and Russia, but also of Moscow's African ambitions. Officially, this visit made it possible to "materialize the firm will" of the Malian and Russian presidents "to stimulate a new dynamic" in their cooperation. The government of the Transition thus wants, indicates Mali, “to widen and diversify the strategic partnerships”.

With a declared enemy: the West. Last January, in Angola, Lavrov had already castigated the “colonial tactics” of the United States and Europe in order to put “pressure on the developing continents”. South Africa, Eritrea, Angola or even Eswatini… Russia is trying to rally several African countries to its cause. In Bamako, he once again spoke of the "neocolonial approaches" of the West.

Lavrov's reception by Mali's transitional authorities was done with great fanfare. After being decorated, the Russian Foreign Minister met Assimi Goïta. Objective: "Strengthen cooperation between Mali and the Russian Federation, in particular by strengthening Mali's defense and security capacities, which today are the pride of Malians and are giving convincing results on the ground". Russia wants to continue to provide "its support for the preservation and defense of the unity of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Mali".

"The world has changed"

Where Moscow benefits from the disgrace of France, among others, is by promising to listen to the Malian authorities. "Our Malian friends have specific requests, they are systematically satisfied," said the head of Russian diplomacy. Last year and at the beginning of this year, cooperation in the military and military-technical spheres experienced a new development”. Lavrov claims to have sent “a large batch of Russian aeronautical equipment” to Mali which enabled the latter to “carry out operations against terrorists, who so far remain active on Malian territory”.

For Diop, the Malian counterpart of Lavrov, appearing with the Russians is also a desire to show that the President of the Transition wants to remain sovereign. “Mali also wants to show and demonstrate that we are not going to continue to justify ourselves for the choice of our partners. This decision is a Malian decision, taken with full responsibility. And Mali wants to work with Russia,” he said.

Lavrov concluded his visit by calling on the former colonial powers to put an end to the era when they “seized and exploited” Africa. Thus sending a message to the whole continent: the West "must get used to the fact that the world has changed and that the declaration of independence of the colonial countries and peoples of the 1960s was not a diplomatic travesty, as it is now it is customary to see it with certain agreements in the West, but that it was a document unanimously approved by the General Assembly of the United Nations, and that it is obligatory to fill it”. A way of reminding all African countries that they are sovereign and therefore that they are allowed to establish relations with Russia.