A delegation from the European Training Mission in Mali visits Mauritania

• For four days, they met with the country's main defence authorities and representatives of the European institutions stationed there.

The Head of the EUTM Mali Force, General Santiago Juan Fernández Ortiz-Repiso, accompanied by officers from the mission, travelled to Mauritania where he held several meetings at the Mauritanian Ministry of Defence with its head, Hananna Ould Sidi, and with the Chief of the Defence Staff , Division General Mokhtar Bolle Chaabane.

He also visited the Executive Secretariat of the G5 Sahel, meeting with its head, Ambassador Eric Y. Tiare, and with the head of the G5 Sahel Security and Defence Department, General Gznagui.

At the G5 Sahel Defence College, where he was received by its director, General Brahim Vall Cheybani, accompanied by the deputy director and the head of studies, he received information on the objectives of the training centre and the current status of the courses, highlighting the bilateral collaboration it has with the Spanish Armed Forces in terms of simulation and technical support. This institution seeks to provide the future leaders of the area with military knowledge and in other fields, highlighting the collaboration with the University of Nouakchott, to obtain a Master's degree in International Relations.

They also met with representatives of EU institutions based in Nouakchott: the ambassador of the European Delegation (EUDEL), Gwilym Jones, the German ambassador, Isabel Hénin, the second head of the Spanish embassy, José Lorenzo, the acting head of the Regional Advisory and Coordination Cell (RACC), Simoneta Silvestri, the head of the political section of EUDEL, Agnes Blassale, and the delegate of Defence of the RACC, Joaquim Santana; as well as with the military attachés of the countries of the European Union, Colonel Fernández Rincón, from Spain, and Colonel Charles Michel, from France. He exchanged views with them on the current situation in Mauritania and Mali, its impact on the Sahel region, and learned about the bilateral collaborations that Mauritania maintains with these countries.