Sudan and Russia have reached a final agreement on the establishment of a Russian naval base in Port Sudan on the Red Sea, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Yusuf al-Sharif announced on Wednesday.
The plan has been discussed for years but never materialized due to the volatile security situation in Sudan.
The deal allows Russia to set up a naval base with up to 300 Russian troops, and to simultaneously keep up to four navy ships, including nuclear-powered ones, in the strategic Port Sudan.
“There are no obstacles, we are in complete agreement,” Sharif said following talks in Moscow with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
He did not elaborate on the terms of the current agreement, and whether the two sides had introduced new amendments to the deal reached between the two countries in 2017.
Lavrov avoided mentioning the military base, but said that during the meeting with Sharif, both sides paid special attention to the war in Sudan.
“We are interested in normalizing the situation in this friendly country, our good traditional partner in Africa, as soon as possible,” the Russian FM said.
“We reaffirmed our principled position on the need for an early cessation of hostilities along with the launch of a national dialogue, which should include representatives of all political, ethnic and religious groups in Sudan,” Lavrov said.
He noted that according to Sharif, the Sudanese leadership published two days ago a roadmap that should pave the way for progress in this direction.
Last December, Russia's embassy in Sudan refuted media reports alleging that the Sudanese authorities refused to host a Russian naval logistics support base.
Earlier in June, Mohamed Siraj, Sudan’s Ambassador to Russia, reaffirmed his country’s dedication to constructing a Russian naval base on the Red Sea.
In 2017, Khartoum and Moscow agreed during a visit by Sudan's ousted former president Omar al-Bashir to Moscow, to establish the base. But in 2021, weeks after Khartoum decided to freeze the deal, Moscow rushed to approve the binding agreement to establish the base in Sudan by passing it through all the legal mechanisms.
Russian President Vladimir Putin referred the agreement to the State Duma for ratification, in the second step of the final approval of the agreement after the Russian government formally ratified it a week earlier.
The Sudanese leadership had informed Moscow of its official position to freeze the deal through military and diplomatic channels.
A Russian source told Asharq Al-Awsat at the time that after referring the document to the Duma and Senate, Moscow is seeking to give it full legal force. This will allow Russia to negotiate later with Sudan to introduce some amendments.
Meanwhile in the Sudanese capital, Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Mohamed Othman al-Hussein said that “Khartoum intends to review the agreement,” noting that it was approved by the previous government and not the parliament.
Despite Sudan’s position, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the agreement remains binding for both parties because it was signed on July 23, 2019, by the representative of the Transitional Military Council, that is, after the change of the political system in Sudan.
Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted that the document has not yet been ratified by the Sudanese party because there is currently no legislative authority in the country with such powers.
Zakharova hinted at Russia’s readiness to show flexibility in revising the text of the agreement and said Moscow was interested in strengthening cooperation with Khartoum.
She explained that even before the agreement enters into force, changes can be introduced to its text at the discretion of both parties.
The agreement stipulates establishing a logistics center for the Russian fleet on the coast of Sudan in the Red Sea. It grants Russia the right to use an operational logistic center in Port Sudan, provided that the maximum number of working personnel does not exceed 300 soldiers, and no more than four Russian warships will be able to stay there at one time.
The agreement is valid for 25 years, with the possibility of extension.
