Russia will continue to provide military and military-technical assistance to Mali to help fight terrorism through state lines, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Thursday.
She emphasized that the joint statement of foreign ministers of 12 countries of the EU, Britain, Norway and Canada, issued on December 23, is an attempt to influence Mali's choice to ensure its own security. The document, among other things, strongly condemns "the deployment of mercenaries on Malian territory."
"For our part, we intend to continue to provide the Malians with the necessary military and military-technical assistance - I stress, on the state line - to strengthen their own capacity to counter-terrorism," she said.
According to Zakharova, Mali today has to fight "an uncompromising battle against numerous terrorist groups" amid a weakening of European counterterrorism assistance to Bamako.
"[The terrorists] were able to significantly increase their activities when the country's European partners, primarily France, began limiting their anti-terrorist assistance <...> There was a real threat of loss of control by the incumbent authorities over part of the territory," she continued.
She also expressed confidence that the international community, including EU countries, needs to help in its fight against terrorism. "The international community, including European Union countries, should effectively help the leadership of this country, Mali, in solving existing problems, rather than inventing problems that do not exist or, even worse, preventing the overcoming of problems and crisis situations in this country," Zakharova said.
Situation in Mali
Sergey Lavrov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry, earlier reported that the Malian authorities asked a Russian private military company for help in fighting terrorism. Against this background, a number of Western countries, primarily France, began accusing Russia of asserting its influence in West Africa with the help of "mercenaries" allegedly linked to the state.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Press Service of the Russian Foreign Ministry / TASS
Based on materials from TASS