BAMAKO, Mali
Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that Russia will continue helping Mali improve its military capabilities, a partnership that has prompted Western concern.
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| Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is welcomed by his Malian counterpart Abdoulaye Diop as he arrives for a two-day visit in Bamako |
The Lavrov statement affirms
many Western analysts' perspective that Moscow seeks to use Mali as its base
for projecting military and diplomatic power over West Africa.
Mali says Russian forces
inside its nation are not mercenaries but trainers helping local troops with
equipment bought from Russia.
Russian President Vladimir
Putin said last year that the Russian state had nothing to do with Russian
military contractors working in Mali, adding that the African country had the
right to work with private Russian firms.
Western governments are
worried about the involvement in Mali of Russian private military contractor
Wagner, which is also fighting alongside the Russian army in Ukraine.
United Nations experts last
week called for an independent investigation into possible war crimes and
crimes against humanity by Malian government forces and Wagner.
Russian news agency RIA quoted
Lavrov as saying that Moscow hoped to start delivering wheat, fertilisers and
oil products to Mali soon.
Lavrov has visited a series of
African countries recently as Moscow, hit by Western sanctions over its war in
Ukraine, seeks to deep trade ties and strategic partnerships elsewhere.
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