Sudan-Egypt ministerial meeting makes slow progress

Despite a meeting held in Cairo on Saturday between Sudan’s foreign minister and his Egyptian counterpart the two countries appear to have made little headway to resolve outstanding differences, international news outlets reported.

In a joint press conference held by the Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, and Sudanese Foreign Minister, Ibrahim Ghandour, the two sides agreed that they had held “honest” and “transparent” talks but the Sudanese official reiterated last month’s claim by President Omar Al-Bashir that Egypt had supplied weapons and armoured vehicles to armed rebels in an attack in Sudan’s western region of Darfur.

Read: Sudan to lodge complaints over Egypt Darfur allegations

However, Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi denied the claim, while Egypt’s media accused Sudan of supporting terrorists in southern Libya following a recent terror attack which left 26 Coptic Christians dead in the south of the country.

Ghandour told a news conference, following a meeting with Al-Sisi, it was difficult for Sudan, with lengthy borders, to control everything that was flowing in and out of the country.

Egypt and Sudan share a 1,200 kilometre land border, it is virtually impossible to patrol the entire length of it. But Sudan proposes to have an arrangement with Egypt similar to our neighbours Chad and Ethiopia and will set up joint border patrols to monitor what is going in and out.

he said.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, downplaying recent friction between the two sides, argued that both countries were trying to “open a new page in cultural, security and economic relations.”

Egypt has absolutely no interest in doing anything that would harm Sudan… a strong Sudan is in Egypt’s interest and vice versa,

he said.

Ghandour said that Sudan and Egypt have enjoyed a “long history of friendship” and he urged both sides “not to do anything that would poison the relationship between our two peoples.”

Al-Sisi and Al-Bashir have met 18 times in recent years, Ghandour added, which he stressed is more than the leaders of any other neighbouring states.

Ties between the two countries have been strained over Sudan’s support of an Ethiopian project to build a dam on the River Nile, a dispute over the sovereignty of the border Halayab triangle and the decision, last week, by Khartoum to ratify a ban on imports of all Egyptian agricultural and animal produce.