Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs: “I came with a message from the President of the Transition to his elder brother, His Excellency the President of the Republic”

Mr. Abdoulaye Diop, the Malian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, who is currently visiting our country with a large ministerial delegation of his country, made a statement to the Mauritanian news agency (AMI), shortly after he was received by His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.
Here is the text of the statement:

“We are in Nouakchott to deliver a message of friendship, gratitude, solidarity, and fraternity from His Excellency Assimi Goïta, the President of the Transition and Head of State of Mali, to his elder brother, His Excellency Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania.
This message addresses primarily the situation in Mali, particularly the challenges and progress linked to the Transition process marked by the holding, at the end of last December, of the meetings of the Refoundation. We are in Nouakchott to brief the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania on the results of those meetings, ask for his advice and guidance, and request his participation with the Malian brothers to address the challenges we have been facing.

This visit also comes in unfavorable circumstances where Mali is subject to sanctions from the WAMU and ECOWAS. Despite these sanctions, which unfairly strike the people of Mali and cause difficulties for Mali and its immediate neighborhood, the President of the Transition has asked me to reassure his brother, the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, of Mali’s constant commitment to address these difficulties through dialogue and consultation and to work tirelessly to find the right balance between the aspirations of the Malian people and the demands of the international community.
So, we are here within the framework of these discussions and to express our great appreciation and gratitude to the Islamic Republic of Mauritania for its active solidarity with Mali.

We are here also to give the necessary assurances that we are going to walk hand in hand on the path of dialogue to ensure that the Transition process in Mali can end in a consensual framework of dialogue. We also to hope that the regional, African, and international community can take the necessary step to better understand and appreciate the situation in our country.

On all these issues, we have benefited from the wise advice of the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, who knows Mali as good as does each of us and whose contribution will always be necessary for peace, stability, understanding, and fraternity between the Mauritanian and Malian peoples, and the peoples of the Sahel in general”.