Junta leader Assimi Goita used his speech marking the 61st anniversary of the Malian army to emphasise the need to scrutinize some military cooperation agreements with France.
“Through an objective analysis of the current context and taking into account the vital interests of our country, we have requested the review of certain military cooperation agreements. At the same time, new agreements have been signed, always with the essential objective of securing Malians and their property” he said.
Although he did not mention France, Giota’s allusion to the ex colonial power is quite clear. A few days earlier, Mali’s Prime Minister Choguel Maiga described the defence agreements between Mali and France as ‘unbalanced.’
“We want to restudy the unbalanced agreements that make us a state that cannot even fly over its territory without France’s authorization,” he said.
On January 11, 2013, Bamako and Paris had signed a series of defense agreements as part of the Serval military operation following the outbreak of the war in the Sahel. Läs artikel