SAHEL-SAHARA SECURITY SUMMIT NOW SCHEDULED FOR

C O N F I D E N T I A L BAMAKO 000676 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/13/2018 TAGS: ASEC PINS PREL ML SUBJECT: SAHEL-SAHARA SECURITY SUMMIT NOW SCHEDULED FOR OCTOBER REF: BAMAKO 00507 Classified By: Political Officer Aaron Sampson, Embassy Bamako, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 1.(C) Former Minister of Defense Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga told the Embassy on July 21 that the Head of State summit on Sahel-Saharan security proposed by President Amadou Toumani Toure was now scheduled for October. Maiga said summer travel schedules, Libya's need to prepare for the September 1 ceremony commemorating Qadafi's rise to power, and the month of Ramadan forced the Malian government to revisit its timetable for the oft-discussed summit. Maiga indicated that President Toure had asked him to play a role in drafting an agenda for the conference. He said Mali hoped to arrange a meeting of Foreign Ministers one or two days prior to the actual Head of State summit. 2.(C) Maiga said countries invited to participate in the summit would include all of the Sahel-Saharan states (Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Libya, Chad, Senegal and Algeria). Other states likely to receive invitations include Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan and even possibly Egypt. Maiga said he intended to raise with President Toure the idea of inviting non-African nations with specific security concerns, such as the U.S. and France, to attend as observers. "We should invite," said Maiga, "everyone who is involved with security in the region." 3.(C) Maiga is in the process of drafting a framework for the conference. He said he hoped to share the document with the U.S, France, Algeria, Morocco and others prior to the actual summit in order to gauge different actors' responses to the various proposals. Many of these proposals echo those he described during his June 3 meeting with Ambassador McCulley (Ref. A). These include a center for the training and coordination of a multi-national force based in the northern outpost of Tessalit, and a regional fund for Sahel-Saharan development. Maiga said he envisioned a "tour de table" at the end of the summit where international partners accorded "observer" status would have a chance to assume a participant role by pledging support for a Sahel-Saharan development plan. 4.(C) Comment: We have no indication as of yet whether Maiga is acting in an official capacity regarding summit planning or trying to insert himself into what is already a somewhat confused process. Since he organized the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD) summit held in Bamako in 2005, Maiga is clearly well versed in the intricacies of arranging a Sahel, Saharan, Maghreb summit. LEONARD