Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov arrived in Mali early Tuesday, February 7, in the midst of a security and political idyll between Moscow and the ruling junta in Bamako.
Sergei Lavrov, who was in Iraq on Monday, was greeted when he got off the plane around 1:30 a.m. (local and GMT) by his counterpart Abdoulaye Diop.
The two men did not make a statement to reporters.
Lavrov will be received on Tuesday by the leader of the junta, Colonel Assimi Goïta.
Discussions with Abdoulaye Diop and a press conference are also scheduled.
Sergei Lavrov's visit to this country plagued by jihadist violence and a deep multidimensional crisis must last less than 24 hours and concretizes the rapprochement operated by the Malian colonels since 2021, at the same time as they broke the military alliance with France and its partners.
If Malian ministers have visited Moscow several times since, the arrival of Sergei Lavrov is presented by the Malian authorities as the
“first of its kind”
.
His visit
"materializes the firm will"
of Presidents Assimi Goïta and Vladimir Poutine
"to stimulate a new dynamic"
in their cooperation in the fields of defense and security as well as at the economic level, indicated Malian Foreign Affairs.