The foreign ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are due in Moscow this week for the first talks between their countries’ newly created confederation and Russia, they said in a statement.

The three Sahelian countries are led by juntas who seized power in coups between 2020 and 2023 and have since turned away from former colonial power France and moved closer to Russia.

They quit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) at the beginning of the year, accusing the regional bloc of being subservient to France, and have formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), originally set up as a defence pact in 2023 but which now seeks closer integration.

The three foreign ministers will be in the Russian capital on Thursday and Friday at the invitation of their counterpart Sergei Lavrov to “take part in the first session of AES-Russia consultations”, the ministers said in a statement posted on Facebook by the Malian foreign ministry, which holds the presidency of the confederation.

“This meeting is part of the shared desire of the heads of state of the AES confederation and the Russian Federation to extend their partnership and their political dialogue at the confederal level and to place them at the heart of their diplomatic, development and defence agenda,” they said.

Russian mercenaries from the Wagner group and its successor Africa Corps are helping the AES countries battle jihadists, whose attacks have killed tens of thousands of people in the three countries.

Moscow has also concluded defence agreements with Mali, Burkina and Niger and has supplied military equipment.

It also cooperates with the AES on energy and mining.