The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov denied Wednesday about his French counterpart according to which Moscow has formally proposed to France to help move troops to Mali.
Moscow has not officially proposed to France to help move troops to Mali, said Lavrov.
"When my colleague Laurent Fabius called me (...), he asked me if there were opportunities to provide transportation services, to which I replied as follows: our private companies, as Volga-Dnepr, AirBridgeCargo, Skol have several contracts, including with the French Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of the Interior of different African countries, "the Russian minister said at a press conference.
"It is their decision, they are commercial projects. And we have nothing spoke more regarding this issue of transportation," he said.
Fabius had said Sunday that Russia had offered to send French troops or equipment in Mali, where the France intervened at the request of authorities in Bamako, following an Islamist offensive south.
"When this information was released, our French colleagues apologized and said it was a distortion of our words," Lavrov said.
The minister also expressed concerns in Moscow about the "destabilizing the Sahel region."
"The instability in North Africa just beyond there," he said, saying that "those who fight in Mali, France, Africans are those who overthrew (Libyan leader Muammar) Gaddafi and armed people to overthrow Gaddafi. "
"We hope that the situation will be stabilized in Mali and the African countries deploy their operation soon as authorized by the Security Council of the UN," he said.
1/24/2013 2:32:56 Al Manar - cameroonvoice.com
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