Burkina Faso's Minister of Defense Kassoum Coulibaly will visit Russia next week with a delegation and will participate in the Army-2023 forum, the African country's Charge d'Affaires in Russia Bassirou Zoma told Sputnik.
"Minister of Defense and Military Veterans Kassoum Coulibaly will lead a delegation from Burkina Faso to Moscow as part of the Army-2023 forum," Zoma said.
Previously, a delegation from the West African country visited Russia for the Second Russia-Africa Summit in late July and was led by the Burkinabe President of Transition Ibrahim Traore.
The leader noted that military-technical cooperation between Burkina Faso and Russia is "flaring very well" and said that his country can always rely on the Russian weapons range available for purchase to bolster the African nation's armed forces in the fight against terrorism.
"Thank God, Russia is a country that refuses nothing: everything we want to buy, it agrees to sell to us. This is not the case with other countries. Russia is also ready to deliver arms to us free of charge to support us in this war [against terrorists]," Traore told Sputnik Africa in an exclusive interview.
In the interview, Traore also thanked Moscow for its intention to provide free grain to African countries, including Burkina Faso.
In addition, the Burkinabe interim president stressed the significant role of Russia in the process of decolonization of Africa, adding that Moscow supports Burkina Faso "as much as it can."
Burkina Faso, located in the Sahel region, has been struggling to contain an offensive by radical jihadists that has been ongoing since 2015.
In 2018, Ouagadougou and Moscow signed an intergovernmental agreement to share know-how and experience in peacekeeping and counter-terrorism.