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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 March 2000 Issue No. 471 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 2 - 8 March 2000 Issue No. 471
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Interview Features Focus Heritage Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Relations on the mend
By Dina EzzatBoth Egypt and Sudan are happy with the recent boost of their bilateral relations and Cairo is sending a seasoned diplomat to fill the vacant post of ambassador in Khartoum, which posting has not been filled for over five years.
At the beginning of April, Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir is expected to make his second visit to Cairo in less than three months.
Sudanese Foreign Minister Mustafa Othman Ismail told Al Ahram Weekly that, when President Hosni Mubarak received him earlier this week, he was informed the president had issued directives that an "Egyptian ambassador be sent back to Khartoum within two weeks". Ismail remarked: "The return of Egypt's ambassador marks a very important phase in bilateral relations."
Mohamed Assem, Egypt's present ambassador to Kenya, will be posted to Khartoum. "He is one of the most capable diplomats and sending him to Sudan is a clear sign of Egypt's keenness to improve relations with its southern neighbour," commented an Egyptian diplomat. He added: "There was a time when Egypt was apprehensive about sending an ambassador to Sudan because of concern over Sudan's commitment to refraining from interference in the internal affairs of neighbouring states, including Egypt. This is no longer the case. We have enough evidence that Sudanese policy has changed, and we can see its [Sudan's] relations improving with most of its neighbours."
Moreover, Egyptian property in Khartoum, that had been taken over in the years of tension between the two countries, is being given back to Cairo. "There is a clear-cut decision to restore these establishments," Ismail told reporters after a meeting with Foreign Minister Amr Moussa.
He added that Minister of Higher Education Mufid Shehab is expected to visit Sudan soon to discuss the hand-over of educational establishments. Property belonging to the Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation has already been returned.
The two countries also appear to have resolved their dispute over the border triangle of Halayeb and Shalatin and are now talking about turning the area into an integrated zone.
Moussa and Ismail discussed Assem's duties, helping to upgrade bilateral relations particularly in the area of commercial and economic cooperation.
"In addition to the major task that the new Egyptian ambassador will have to play in improving political ties between the two countries, he will have to focus many of his efforts on the economic file," Ismail told the Weekly. He added: "Trade relations between Egypt and Sudan are practically frozen. Now we are talking about cooperation under a bilateral umbrella, and also under the umbrella of COMESA [the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa], as well as the umbrella of Arab cooperation; so there is much to be done."
Moussa and Ismail said that there is a need to review the legal framework of commercial and economic relations between the two countries to decide if new agreements or protocols are required, or if old ones need to be revived.
By the end of March, a coordination committee will meet in Khartoum to make preparations for an April meeting of a joint ministerial committee in Cairo under the chairmanship of the two foreign ministers.
What appears to be more urgent is for the two foreign ministers to focus on the ambitious effort of forging a national reconciliation in Sudan, which has been ravaged by civil war that has killed more than a million Sudanese since 1983. The issue was discussed in a three-way meeting held in Cairo this week between Moussa, Ismail, and their Libyan counterpart Ali Al-Treiki.
"We have agreed that we will continue to work on the joint Egyptian-Libyan initiative [for peace in Sudan]," Moussa told reporters.
The joint initiative was first proposed in August, aiming to arrange a dialogue between the Khartoum regime and its opposition forces in the north and south. Cairo and Tripoli have made progress with the leading representatives of the northern opposition, Othman Al-Merghani and Al-Sadek Al-Mahdi. But no significant progress has been reported on the front of John Garang, leader of the southern opposition, who seems to prefer an alternative initiative made by the Inter-Governmental Authority for Development (IGAD), which strictly aims at forging a reconciliation between the Khartoum government and Garang.
According to Ismail, the Sudanese government is ready to meet the opposition any time. "We have responded to their [confidence-building] demands, but we refuse [to go to negotiations] with preconditions," Ismail said.
Libyan and Egyptian officials told the Weekly that the Sudanese government has been very accommodating in connection with the confidence-building measures requested by the Sudanese opposition, particularly its demand for political power-sharing. It is only logical to expect that the rest of the demands will be negotiated in the all-inclusive conference that Egypt and Libya have been trying to arrange for the past few months, the officials said.
