EU calls Mali crisis talks

Ashton talks of providing financial and logistical support to African troops.

Foreign ministers from the European Union’s 27 member states have been summoned to meet in Brussels this week to discuss the crisis in Mali, following an advance by armed rebels that prompted military intervention by France.

Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said in a statement that the extraordinary meeting was “to take stock of possible EU actions in support of Mali”.

Under a plan agreed within the UN in December, an African force was expected to fight alongside the Malian army against Islamist forces that seized the north of the country last spring. The EU’s role was limited to training the Malian army and providing financial and capacity-building support.

Ashton said today that the foreign ministers foreign ministers would discuss accelerating deployment of EU trainers, financial and logistical assistance for the African force and “other direct support to the Malian government to help it cope with the current situation”.

The statement does not mention military support for France. The UK, Germany, Belgium and Denmark have offered France logistical support, while France says that the US is providing intelligence, communications and transport support.

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission’s president, praised the “courageous action of French troops” on Saturday (12 January).

No date has yet been set for the EU foreign ministers’ talks.

Ashton said that the EU is co-ordinating its response with the UN, the African Union, and Ecowas, the 15-country Economic Community of West African States, which will form the African military mission.

This is first extraordinary meeting of EU foreign ministers since the summer, when Belarus expelled Sweden’s diplomats from Minsk after a Swedish public-relations company flew a plane into Belarusian airspace and dropped teddy bears bearing pro-democracy messages.

Foreign ministers were next scheduled to meet on 31 January.

Ashton, who was in Brussels today, did not make a public appearance. She is due to appear before the European Parliament tomorrow, for a previously scheduled debate.