Mali expels Swedish ambassador

On Friday, August 9, Mali's ruling junta ordered the Swedish ambassador to leave the country within three days, 72 hours, in response to statements by a Swedish minister about the African country's support for Russia .

The Swedish diplomat, Kristina Kühnel, was “summoned” to Mali's Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday “ to notify her of the decision to leave the country within 72 hours ,” according to a government press release. This measure follows the "erroneous and hostile statement made on social networks by Johan Forssel, Swedish Minister for International Development Cooperation and Foreign Trade", he added.

“ We cannot support Russia's illegal war of aggression against Ukraine, despite receiving several hundred million crowns in development aid every year.” The Government has therefore decided to phase out Sweden's bilateral aid strategy for Mali in 2024,” Forssell wrote on the social network X on Wednesday.

The junta believes that this is “ yet another provocation by a Swedish authority, after the brutal decisions to end bilateral cooperation and close the embassy in Bamako on 21 December 2023 and 20 June 2024 respectively, without any regretted by the Malian side ." Stockholm had previously announced the closure of its embassy in Bamako by the end of the year and announced the opening of a new embassy in Dakar, Senegal, in 2025.

“Strategic partnership” with Russia

In its press release, Bamako “ strongly condemns the contemptuous statements ” of Minister Forssel, who “ desperately seeks to exonerate the Ukrainian authorities, who support international terrorism .” Mali said Kiev provided information to rebel troops, who then used it to kill dozens of Groupe Wagner mercenaries and Malian soldiers in July.

Furthermore, according to Bamako, the Swedish minister is “ incapable of having the slightest compassion for Mali and for the victims of this Ukrainian aggression ,” reads the press release. For the junta, "the lives of its brave soldiers and the security of the nation are of inestimable value, far beyond any development aid."

The Malian government claims to be " used to this condescending attitude on the part of some Western countries" . In his view, this attitude “regularly takes the form of questioning sovereign decisions made to effectively combat armed terrorist groups and their foreign state sponsors,” the press release reads. It notes that “ the choice of a strategic partnership” with Russia “ is producing the expected results ” and states that Bamako “ intends to further strengthen it ” for peace and security in Mali.

Without money, or weapons, there is little friendship

The diplomatic rupture between Mali and an EU country comes after Tuareg rebels in northern Mali attacked and caused significant losses to both Malian soldiers and Wagner group forces. An important defeat that is putting all the balances of the area at stake, as we will see in another article.

The blow has been very hard and these African countries, Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali, cannot afford not to be successful on the military side. This makes them very sensitive on this point and not understanding it, as the Swedish foreign minister did, who twisted the knife in the wound, is something that cannot be accepted by these countries.

At the same time, the instrumental way in which bilateral relations are understood in many Sub-Saharan countries is clear: as long as you pay, with financial or military aid, you are friends, but when you no longer send money, the friendship then vanishes. You need to be well aware and, if you want, set up relationships on the basis of this simple principle. As long as it is necessary for Sweden to have relations with Mali.

---

---

The article Mali expels the Swedish ambassador comes from Scenari Economici .

---

This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/il-mali-espelle-lambasciatore-svedese/ on Sat, 10 Aug 2024 08:00:14 +0000.