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Lavrov to visit Mali at invitation of country’s top diplomat

The countries will agree on the exact schedule and agenda of the visit later

MOSCOW, November 11. /TASS/. Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said he will visit Mali at the invitation of the country’s authorities, with the exact schedule and agenda for the visit to be clarified at a later date.

"Minister Diop invited me to visit Mali. I am happy to accept this invitation, and we will agree on the exact schedule and agenda later," Lavrov said at a press conference following his meeting with Mali’s top diplomat Abdoulaye Diop.

Mali has gone through two military coups since August 2020. The first one, carried out on August 18, 2020, resulted in the ousting of the country’s president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, with Bah Ndaw appointed as interim president by the coup leaders. However, in May this year, Ndaw was ousted by the same group of military officers, and Mali’s Constitutional Court declared Colonel Assimi Goita "president of the transition" and head of state. The new Malian authorities confirmed the commitment to hold presidential and parliamentary elections in February 2022, made by the previous government back in September 2020.