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Niger bids farewell to Western influence as US troops plan exit

Alexander Stepanov thinks that this is precisely why Russia needs to help local authorities ensure national security

MOSCOW, June 11. /TASS/. US troops leaving Niger will be a major milestone in the West African country's struggle to free itself from the West’s neocolonial influence, program director of the Academy of Political Sciences Alexander Stepanov told TASS.

"The US troop pullout from Niger which was announced on June 8 is the latest milestone in the country’s history on the path toward its complete liberation from Western neocolonial influence. Simultaneously, this may indicate that the country’s authorities are unequivocally heading toward ensuring its sovereignty, including in the security sphere," Stepanov, who is also a senior researcher at the Institute of Latin American Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (ILA RAN), explained.

According to him, the CIA is working to counteract Russia and China in Africa, an element of Washington’s general imperative of global escalation within the framework of its hybrid war against Beijing and Moscow.

The expert thinks that this is precisely why Russia needs to help local authorities ensure national security.

In his opinion, in addition to sending instructors and specialists to Niger, education is an important aspect of military cooperation when local servicemen attend Russian military institutions of higher education. "Thus, currently, over 2,500 servicemen from African countries attend our study centers with the majority of them being future representatives of the national military elite and the conductors of long-term interaction with our country," the expert explained. "The comprehensive nature of interaction will be able to ensure the development of a long-term strategic partnership between Russia and the African continent," Stepanov concluded.

About US troop withdrawal from Niger

On June 8, the US and Niger announced the beginning of the withdrawal of US troops from the African country. The agreement on pulling out the US contingent was reached in mid-May. Before the 2023 coup when head of Presidential Guards, General Abdourahmane Tchiani, removed from power President Mohamed Bazoum, US servicemen were in charge of training the republic’s troops and their intelligence operations. In March, Niger broke its military agreement with the US, according to which a US drone base was established in the country’s north. The republic’s authorities pointed out that the agreement was forced on them and did not correspond to the people’s interests. About 1,100 US troops were in Niger by the end of 2023 with the majority of them stationed at an air force base near Agadez.

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