 Welcome everybody to CSIS. My name is Jennifer Cook. I'm director of the Africa program here at CSIS. My job is very short here. It's mostly to instruct you on your headsets, translation headsets. Let me just say for English speakers you turn it to 2M. For French speakers you turn your channel to 2F. For French speakers you turn your channel to 2F. And if you have any problems, open the front of the cassette and you'll see the buttons to change the channel. We at CSIS are so delighted today to host President Keita of Mali for talking to us here today about security in the Sahel. I'm going to turn very quickly over to Ambassador Mark Bellamy who's a senior advisor here at CSIS to make the introductions. I do want to say too we are completely oversubscribed. There are those of you in the overflow room. If you haven't gotten a headset and you're an English speaker you can go down to the overflow room where it will all be transmitted in English. So again this is a great honor and a great delight for us here at CSIS and I'm going to turn over to Mark Bellamy. Thank you Jennifer. It is a great honor to welcome to CSIS this morning His Excellency Ibrahim Boubakar Keita, president of the Republic of Mali. Mr. President we are delighted that in the midst of this very busy week in Washington you've agreed to join us today. And we're gratified by the very large response to this event. So thanks to all of you in the audience this morning. I'd like to single out a couple of colleagues in the audience today. Ambassador Mary Beth Leonard, U.S. Ambassador to Mali. Thank you Ambassador Leonard for helping us to put this program together a few weeks ago. I also want to welcome members of President Keita's cabinet today, Foreign Minister Job. It's very nice to see you again sir. Our time is limited today so I'm not going to try to set the scene for President Keita's remarks. This is an audience Mr. President which I think is well aware of the difficulties Mali has encountered over the past two or three years. And they are here today to hear from you on the way forward in Mali on matters ranging from the restoration of security to reconciliation in the north to governance reform. Just a very brief biographic note. As many of you are aware President Keita was elected president in July 2013 in a free and fair election marked by high voter turnout. Prior to that President Keita had served in many public capacities over the years as prime minister, as foreign minister, as an ambassador, as a member of parliament, as a political organizer and political party leader and as an academic. However challenging those positions were I think it is fair to say Mr. President that the position you now occupy is unquestionably the most challenging of all. For Mali is well and truly at an historic turning point. President Keita has agreed to speak for several minutes. I don't know how long his remarks will run. But we do want to leave time for questions. I want to make sure our guests in the overflow room as Jennifer said also have a chance to be interactive with us so I hope we can take a few questions from that quarter as well. So thank you again Mr. President for joining us today and welcome to CSIS. Thank you. Certainly to answer questions and to pay tribute to you country for the very strong support of the United States. We have to mind since our crisis, a deep crisis, a very difficult one went through during these last three years. As I said after these few words in hard English, in French I'm much more comfortable. Mr. President, in this city of Tumuktu, in this city of Tumuktu, everything we cannot imagine has been done. If I may, Mr. President, start off with a question. Start off really by thanking you for your remarks and ask a question about the north of Mali. My question is whether you can give us an update or a report on how the process of dialogue and reconciliation may be going in the north since I'm sure you would agree that this is essential to winning over the confidence and loyalty of these populations that have suffered so much. In recent years. We have to ensure the approach of the first view of the method. There is a lot of perseverance, a lot of sense of compromise. We have succeeded in congratulating Minister Diop, Minister of Foreign Affairs who led the delegation from Mali to the Alger Valley. We have had a lot of patience so that we have succeeded in the 24th. In reality, the four of us are not all. No. When the change is constantly being attacked, the mission of the Prime Minister is to do his job. It's to you to say to the other... Is it light because of... He's looking after you. That's your problem, not mine. That's your problem, not mine. I am interested by what's occurring here. So it's not easy. It's the elements that... I'm going to call upon a couple of our audience here and we will take perhaps three questions together, Mr. President, and you'll get a chance to answer all at once. Let me go to a question of right here. There's a microphone just behind you. Hello, I'm Dr. Donna Wells. My question is, is the United States losing the media war in Africa? What is the African media saying about the United States? Thank you. Is the U.S. losing the media war? What is Africa saying about the United States? Okay, good question. Back here, you, sir. You could pass the microphone to the edge there. Thank you. My name is Neil. He might have understood the question of Madame. Okay. The image of the United States. The image of the United States. Second question. Born in Ghana, but I live in Washington, D.C. and I'm part of MaliWatch. Thank you. My question is, we understand that other communities, non-Turkish communities, were affected by the war and they have grievances. So are they also getting the attention of the government or is the government only dealing with the grievances of the Tuareg community? Very good question. Very good question. We will take one more question from over here. The woman with, on the edge there, then the black jacket. Yes. With the stylish glasses. Yes, with the stylish glasses and the black jacket. Brooke Stearns-Lawson. I'm a senior organized crime advisor in USA's Africa Bureau. You spoke about the issues of ungoverned spaces and of bolstering of violent non-state actors in terms of the implications of drug trafficking and illicit trafficking. And I'm wondering if you could speak a little bit about how do we address the erosion of legitimate and effective governance in the North, also that's implicated in illicit trafficking. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. To some extent about the question of governance in the North and these ungoverned spaces and what the government needs to do to reestablish legitimacy and so forth. So I'm going to go to a couple of questions that have come to us from the overflow room please relate a bit to the discussion that we are having here. Here's one interesting note. Do you envision Mali becoming a federal state? No. Giving? Okay. Next question. Definitely no. No. Because the conditions of environment is certainly totally different from what you used to. And I know what could be inside that concept. That's why I am opposed. Absolutely. No. No. All right. Let me go to a question here. You've had your hand up a little while. Would you like to comment on that? Madame, this was the case before. It was the Washington bureau chief of the African sometimes. And I'm also a founding member of MaliWash, the first MaliWash, which was put together by Mali and the second MaliWash during the crisis. And here I'm holding a petition signed by millions worldwide that I should enter the president. I would like my question to the president would be to know his impression about the meeting with the president Obama. And what did he take back to Mali from the U.S.? Okay. So I have to give him this. What were you? You remain... Okay, these always go through the foreign... You remain a negative activist. Okay. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Back... Far in the back here. Yes. Ben, on the... All the way to the back. All the way to the back. And there are two hands up, the one on your... There you go. Bonjour Monsieur le Président de la République. Je m'appelle Abdelay Basirou Keita. Et je suis... Ma question se rapporte plutôt à ce que le monsieur, au fond de la salle, avait plutôt posé comme question. Qu'est-ce qui a été fait pour mettre... Anasberg, a volcano, volcano. Volcano. I am the head of the state. Things are not so easy. Sometimes we should have the means of the politics. You want to... Soyons patients. Soyons patients. You're about the impressions that you would take away from the summit, Mr President. And you talked a little bit about that in your opening remarks. I don't know whether you wish to add anything in response to the question here in front about what you will take home. J'aurais retenu l'intérêt. That's what I was hoping to hear. Thank you. We'll take a question right here. Good morning, Mr President. My name is Vivian Lowry Derrick. I have this NGO, Bridges, and we're the group that convened the Second Mali Watch. And we worked for the restoration of democracy and the territorial integrity of Mali. My question involves the military because I know that you are restructuring, and it's a two-part question, really. In the training, is there an emphasis on civilian control of the military and on adherence to the Constitution? That's the first part of the question. And then secondly, is there any effort to integrate women into the military? Because if women are integrated, then some of the sexual violence against women is somewhat mitigated. So I would appreciate it if you would just give us an update on what's happening in terms of military restructuring. Thank you. Thank you, Vivian. The first question will be my honor to succeed, don't get it. The second question, so one now. Many, many, many, many colonels, many other officers in our different arms. You don't have a Marine troop because Mali is a landlocked country, totally landlocked. We also no longer have air troops. Only, how can I say, National Guard, and we in them, National Guard and La Meditale, we have a lot of women. And no segregation, absolutely, no segregation at all. One of those who have been the most courageous during the battle in another part of Mali, a lady, colonel named Asagara. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful lady. And she led these men in difficult conditions. And you see, Madame, to be complete, to be complete. Madame Michelle Obama, one of the family members, has been awarded by Madame Obama two months ago. That's also the new Mali woman. Ah, you were hiding. You speak French better than I speak English. Very well. I'm going to take a question here, you sir, and then a question on the very back. Hello, Mr. President. I am from Gambia and I'm an exiled journalist in the United States for over 10 years. Yesterday we felt half of your colleagues that were in Washington are not supposed to be here. They have no respect for the rule of law. They do not respect citizens. They are very brutal. Well, we respect you. You are elected democratically and we are watching you. When you guys said, what do you discuss about the bad image that some of your colleagues, Mugabe, Bashir, my own President Yame, what do you guys talk together? What do you advise them? Some of you who respect your citizens. I'm here over 10 years. I can go home. I've been arrested. I've been jailed. I've been tried just because I write articles. When you all said, some of them don't respect the EU, the echo was lost that you own presidents in store. What do you advise them? Okay, thank you. Madam, you know, I've been a student leader in Paris while I was there. A tough one. And I used to demonstrate. Nowadays, madam, please understand that in my position, I'm not allowed to criticize a colleague from another country. In each country, every people says it's right to be rightly, how can I say, governed. But I understand you. I understand you. And be sure I remain the student leader I've been. That's all. How are we? Are we okay? Okay. We have some more time. Any more questions? No. Okay. All right. One more question. No. All right. Okay. Well, Mr. President, I'm sure that this, you can tell by the number of hands that there are still many questions out here in this audience. And I think that also is an indication of the great level of interest in this country. Absolutely. For what's going on in Mali today. I think it's also maybe an indication of the high expectations here of your presidency. And sometimes it's the bad luck of presidents to have high expectations no matter what country they come from. But I want to, on behalf of CSIS and on behalf of our guests today, thank you again for agreeing to spend this time with us. Thank you for your remarks. Thank you for your candor. And I want to wish you, I'm sure we all want to wish you safe travels home. And every success in the difficult tasks that you have ahead of you back in Mali. So thank you, sir. And please join me in thanking.