Foreign Minister of Mali told why the country left the «Sahel Five»

Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Integration and International Cooperation of the Republic of Mali Abdoulaye Diop. File photo MOSCOW, May 23. Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop explained in an interview with RIA Novosti why his country withdrew from the Sahel Five. Earlier, the Mali government announced its withdrawal from all structures of the Sahel Five ( G5), which currently includes Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad.Mali does not close the door on relations with France, said the Foreign Minister»Leaving the organization is not a matter of fashion, but a matter of choosing our country. We do not think that this will lead to isolation. This organization was created to solve the crisis that has developed in Mali in 2012-2014. And at that time, Mali was a very active member of the Sahel Five. The goals of the organization are the fight against terrorism, as well as issues of economic development …. The Five itself, admittedly, could not really achieve the set goals,» the Mali Foreign Minister said. He explained that Mali was appointed at the N'Djamena summit in February 2021 as the current president of the Five and was supposed to chair the eighth summit in Bamako. «But then problems began, and, unfortunately, despite our warnings, no effort has been made to resolve the contradictions.To be clear, we know that one of the member states of the Five opposed the Malian presidency.And secondly, there is another state that does not belong to lies neither with the «Five» nor with the region, which, nevertheless, has a huge influence on this organization. And it practically vetoed Mali becoming chairman,» the African Foreign Minister said. «We consider this attitude unacceptable, because a state that is not a member of the organization cannot have more rights than a state that is its member. I won't name the country, but you can guess which state has such influence on this organization,» he stressed.A delegation from Mali will take part in the SPIEFDiop noted that for today the security of Mali is the responsibility of the country itself, although cooperation with other countries in the field of security will continue. «We are working on this, although we understand that we need to find a way to work with neighboring countries «Mali will continue to work within the framework of bilateral formats with Chad, Niger, Mauritania and Burkina Faso, which are friendly countries for us. There is also Algeria, which is not part of the G5, but with which we will continue to work within the framework of existing mechanisms,» — he noted. Earlier, following the results of negotiations with the Foreign Minister of Mali, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow would continue to support Bamako in increasing the combat effectiveness of the armed forces, since Russia is interested in the crises in Africa being resolved as soon as possible. In 2014, France launched the anti-terrorist operation «Barkhan» in the region. This mission is supported by the G5 regional structure, created in the same year. The purpose of the operation in the Sahara-Sahel region (Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad) is to fight terrorism and stabilize the situation to a level where local authorities can provide security themselves. In the summer of 2021, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that Paris would change the model of its military presence in the Sahel: Operation Barhan in its current form would be completed and replaced by an international alliance that would include the countries of the region and other partners. Previously, the Elysee Palace reported that France, its European allies in Operation Takuba and Canada decided to initiate a coordinated withdrawal of troops from Mali because of disagreement with the country's transitional authorities. The withdrawal of French troops from Mali will take four to six months, said French President Emmanuel Macron. After that, the Mali government called on France to withdraw troops involved in Operations Barhan and Takuba «without delay» and under the control of the Malian authorities.Read the full text of the interview >>The Foreign Minister of Mali announced the stabilization of the situation in the country