MAE - December 8, 2011
Delegates from the countries of the Sahel region (Algeria, Mali, Niger and Mauritania) joined other participants from the European Union at a meeting on security and development convened on December 8 in Brussels.

This meeting, which Minister Delegate for Maghreb and African Affairs Abdelkader Messahel attended, is convening to follow up on the proceedings of the international conference on security and development, which last September 7 and 8 gathered in Algiers the countries of the Sahel and their extra-regional partners.

The Sahel countries’ delegation also met with Mrs. Catherine Ashton, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and EU Commission Vice President, and other European Union officials.

It should be recalled that the Algiers conference had helped define the guiding principles directing a partnership in development and security in the sub-region, and primarily founded on ownership of counterterrorism by the countries of the region, indivisibility of security and development, and complementarity between various Sahel strategies and approaches and the strategy designed and implemented by the countries of the Sahel themselves.

The two-day international conference had come on the heels of a previous meeting held in November 2010 in Washington, which gathered representatives from the Sahel countries and U.S. high officials.