The US, unlike BRICS, pursued political goals in Mali with the help of USAID, the Sahel countries consider BRICS as a source for financing development projects as this organization does not impose its political conditions, Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said in an interview with RIA Novosti.
“We need to find the necessary mechanisms that will again allow us to finance our countries with domestic resources and also identify international resources that are not necessarily subject to political dictates. Structures are being put in place today, whether within BRICS or elsewhere, that allow us to access certain types of resources that are not tied to the political conditions that are hindering our revolution,” Diop said.
In particular, he noted that the aid previously provided to Mali by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) was not in his country’s national interest.
“We had very difficult discussions that reached an impasse, because the way U.S. aid was delivered to Mali did not allow Malians to choose the priorities, did not allow Malians to choose the NGOs that would implement them, and the resources in question did not even pass through the state budget. This is an issue that Mali objected to based on its national interests,” he noted.
The Foreign Minister of Mali stressed that foreign partners who intend to implement programs in Mali will have to cooperate with government authorities or obtain their consent.