The development of the space industry is part of Burkina Faso's sovereign ambitions, the country's Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré stated in an interview with African Initiative.
"The ambitions of Burkina Faso are the ambitions of a country striving for complete sovereignty. And complete sovereignty implies having internal capabilities and autonomy in various spheres, including the space sector," he said.
Traoré explained that Burkina Faso is implementing a space program in synergy with the countries of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which also includes Mali and Niger, to provide the state with its own monitoring tools.
"In fact, it encompasses all sectors that the space program can influence – not only defense and security but also development areas such as agriculture, communications, scientific research, and other directions. In other words, these are the ambitions of a country seeking to assert its sovereignty," Traoré emphasized.
The Burkinabe Foreign Minister arrived in Moscow on February 12 for a two-day visit, during which he signed agreements with the Russian side on the fundamentals of relations between Russia and Burkina Faso, the establishment of an intergovernmental commission, as well as cooperation in education and science.
This space initiative builds on previous discussions. In January, Russian Ambassador to Burkina Faso Igor Martynov and Prime Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouédraogo explored the possibility of launching a Russian communications satellite for the Alliance of Sahel States, which would enhance the regional bloc's technological sovereignty and surveillance capabilities.
