From Wednesday 31 March through Friday 2 April 2021, Minister of Defence Lubomír Metnar visited Mali where Czech Armed Forces service personnel operate as part of EUTM Mali and, since the beginning of the year, also in Task Force Takuba in the French led Operation Barkhane.
It was a joint visit with French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly and Estonian Minister of Defence Kalle Laanet, organised by France.
Besides visiting Czech service members and engaging in bilateral discussions with both European counterparts, Minister Metnar also met with the EUTM Mali Mission Commander, General Fernando Luis Gracia Herreiz of the Spanish Armed Forces.
“Engagement in missions in the Sahel region is one of the stepping stones of a successful fight against terrorism and illegal migration. Deployment in Mali has become one of the most important foreign operations for the Czech service members and they are doing a great job here. That we seek to take over the command of EUTM Mali in the second half of 2022 testifies to our interest in stabilising the region. We have also become actively engaged in the TF Takuba under the French command,” Minister Metnar stated.
Task Force Takuba as part of Operation Barkhane was one of the main topics of the Ministerial visit in Mali, which marked the achievement of the reaching of full operational capabilities by TF Takuba.
The Ministers visited the Task Force main camp in Ménaka in the region of Liptako in the southeast of the country and agreed there was a need to continue the common endeavour in the region. At the moment, Task Force Takuba comprises 600 service personnel contributed by eight European countries. The mission for the Czech special forces and their international colleagues is to assist and train the local security forces on counterterrorism.
The Defence Ministers of the Czech Republic, Estonia and France also met with Malian political and military leaders, namely with President Bah N‘Daw, Vice President Assimi Goïta and Defence Minister Sadio Camara.
The discussions confirmed that Mali continued to face security threats by terrorist groups. It is critical to carry on providing international assistance for Mali to be able to take responsibility for own security in the years ahead. The Czech Republic plans to help achieve that objective both through military engagement, but also through stepping up political and development aid activities in the region.
“It is for the first time since World War II that we cooperate so closely and intensively. It makes us even stronger partners and allies,” Minister Metnar underscored and added: “I want to thank Minister Parly for organising this visit. It confirmed that we are in this together and that our common deployment here bears fruit and has meaning.”
- There are 120 Czech Armed Forces service personnel in three operations deployed in Mali at the moment. The first is the European Union Training Mission (Czech service members are stationed in Bamako and the Koulikoro Training Centre), the second is Task Force Takuba, and the third is the United Nations Multinational Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). The mandate authorised by the Parliament of the Czech Republic till the end of 2022 for deployment of up to 120 soldiers into the EUTM, 60 service personnel into Task Force Takuba and up to 15 personnel to MINUSMA.
