Military leader says Sudan is reviewing its naval agreement with Russia Military News

General Mohammed Othman al-Hussein said negotiations were underway with Russian officials to “serve the interests of Sudan.”

The Sudanese military leader said the country is considering an agreement to take over the Russian naval base on the Red Sea coast, which came under the command of former President Omar al-Bashir after nearly 30 years in power two years ago.

“This agreement was signed under the former Government of National Salvation,” Mohamed Othman al-Hussein, head of the Armed Forces General Staff, said in an interview Tuesday night.

Last week with a visiting delegation from Russia, Sudan’s Blue Nile TV held “talks to review the agreement in the service of Sudan’s interests”.

News about the deal surface at the end of last year on the official portal of the Russian government. The agreement allows Russia to set up a naval base with 300 Russian soldiers and at the same time maintain four naval vessels, including nuclear ones, in the Sudanese Port of the Red Sea.

In exchange, Russia will provide Sudan with weapons and military equipment. The agreement will run for 25 years, with automatic extensions for 10-year periods unless one of the parties opposes it.

“We are negotiating a possible revision of this agreement to ensure that our interests and profits are taken into account,” al-Hussein said.

Additional talks?

For decades, Sudan was under military rule by Russia because of harsh sanctions imposed by the United States on the al-Bashir government.

But Sudan has been improving its ties with the US since al-Bashir was ousted by the military in April 2019 after widespread protests against its rule.

The country is run by a technocratic government and a council of civilians and military because it will relinquish power by the end of 2023.

Last year, the U.S. removed Khartoum and Sudan from its list of “terrorism-protecting states” as its first ambassador in decades. As part of the thaw, Sudan has agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with its US ally Israel.

Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a decree in November saying the Russian government had approved a proposal to set up a logistics logistics center in Sudan.

Al-Hussein said the agreement for a Russian base had not yet been presented to an unfinished legislative council, which would serve as a parliament in Sudan’s political transition.

The Kremlin has said it has seen al-Hussein’s comments and hopes Moscow will stay in contact with Sudan and hope to resolve the situation.

Russian Foreign Ministry official Mikhail Bogdanov suggested additional talks to clarify the situation, and Russia would be happy to clarify anything on its part, the Interfax news agency reported.