"Of course, it is not good. I mean, we see more Wagner presence; we see more Africa Corps presence, which both are Russian," van der Laan said during a discussion at the Center for European Policy Analysis in Washington.
Van der Laan also acknowledged the growing activity of China, Iran, and other countries on the African continent.
"There are more and more actors active in Africa," van der Laan said.
The European Union does not like this situation but has yet to find a solution, while is also faced with the problem of training people who may later choose to cooperate with the Wagner Group, he said.
"That is why we stopped the training operations in some countries, and for the future, we need to think about how to make sure that they choose for us instead of for Wagner," van der Laan said.
In March, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia has never meddled in Africa or tried to squeeze Western countries out of there, while African leaders themselves want to work with Russia.