Russian Red Sea base deal still on the table, Sudanese FM says

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CAIRO (Reuters) -An agreement signed years ago for the creation of a Russian naval base in Sudan remains on the table following talks in Moscow, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Yusef Sharif said in an interview with Russia Today on Wednesday.

Such a deal has been discussed for years since an agreement was signed under former President Omar al-Bashir. The army generals who overthrew him in 2019 said later the plan was under review, and a base has never materialised.

“In our meeting we did not negotiate the deal … there was a deal signed and there is no disagreement,” he said, saying that as before all that remains is the issue of ratification.

“There are no obstacles, we are in complete agreement,” Sharif had said earlier when asked about the deal, following talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

He did not provide any additional details on the plan.

Russia has cultivated ties with both sides in Sudan’s almost two-year-long civil war, and Russian officials have visited the army’s wartime capital of Port Sudan in recent months.

Last year, a top Sudanese general said Russia had asked for a fuelling station on the Red Sea in exchange for weapons and ammunition.

Sharif said such a station presented no threat to any other country or to Sudan’s sovereignty, drawing on the example of nearby Djibouti, which hosts several foreign bases.

Such a station would be beneficial to Russia, particularly after the fall of Syria’s Assad regime put in question key bases there.

The war in Sudan has drawn in multiple competing regional and global influences, in part due to its ample Red Sea coastline, as well as gold resources.

(Writing by Nafisa Eltahir; Editing by Sandra Maler and Daniel Wallis)