mr president sadly salafist forces that are part of the global al-qaeda franchise have found sanctuary in the sahel region which is a vast and remote territory ideal for them for purposes of terrorist training kidnapping unfortunate innocents and here i extend my condolences to the families of the two french citizens recently murdered and of course drug smuggling and organised crime
this poses a vast security challenge on top of the similar problems we already face in the afghanistan pakistan border region in somalia and in yemen
the eu must now cooperate strongly with our us allies and other democratic countries such as india and israel as well as neighbouring moderate arab and african governments in finding a joint strategy to defeat this menace to global security
madam high representative operation atalanta off somalia has been a success
perhaps something now needs to be considered under a nato hat a french-led common security and defence policy mission or whatever to defeat this global threat particularly in the region of mali mauritania and niger which are already extremely poor countries and need every bit of help we can give them
