Sudan’s Ambassador to Russia Mohammed Sirraj said in an interview with the newspaper: “News”that the situation in this African country will in no way affect the agreement on the deployment of a logistics service center (MTO) of the Russian Navy on the territory of the Sudanese state.
“Perhaps only the deadlines will be shifted, as political reconciliation in Sudan needs to be restarted to complete the democratic power transition,” the diplomat said.
The difficulty, in his view, lies in the fact that this document must be approved by the legislature, but has not yet been created. The ambassador said that there is currently no parliament in Sudan as it is in the process of transition.
“When it’s finished, we will have an elected government that can submit this deal to parliament for approval,” he said.
According to Sirraj, this base is a matter of military infrastructure.
“We can actually use the ports in Port Sudan on the Red Sea to import goods from Russia and export from Sudan,” he said in response to a question about whether the Russian Navy base could serve as a loading point for merchant ships.
Sudanese officials before to give permission The Russian Navy will build a base in the Red Sea since the process of revising the agreement on the naval base has been successfully completed.
The situation in Sudan escalated in mid-April this year with the outbreak of fighting in the capital and other states between the regular army and the Rapid Reaction Forces under the command of Deputy Chairman of the Interim Sovereignty Council, Mohammed Hamdan Daglo.
Agreements on the creation of a base for the Russian Navy in Sudan were reached in November 2020. It is assumed that the maximum number of personnel cannot exceed 300 people. At the same time, no more than four Russian ships, including those with nuclear power plants, will be able to stay there. But in 2021 Sudan demanded that the terms of the agreement be reviewed.