A bilateral summit between Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will be held in Khartoum on Thursday.
Taking place during Sisi’s visit to the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, the summit aims to strengthen bilateral relations and strategic partnership between Cairo and Khartoum, as well as broadening areas of cooperation in a way that meets the aspirations of the two nations.
Sisi’s visit to Khartoum will be the fifth since he came to office in 2014, and the first since he was re-elected for a second term of office in March 2018. The president’s visit to Sudan was in October 2016, during which he delivered a speech at the final session of the Sudanese National Dialogue.
The summit will be the third meeting between the two presidents; the first took place between them took place in January in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on the sidelines of the African Summit, while the second meeting was held in Egypt on March.
The Khartoum summit will discuss methods to enhance shared interests, through various joint mechanisms and joint committees between Egypt and Sudan.
These include the Special Committee for Trade Promotion, the Higher Joint Technical Authority for the Nile Water, the Nile Valley Authority for River Navigation, the Consular Committee, the Military Committee, the Border Crossings’ Committee, and the mechanism of consultation between the foreign ministers of the two countries.
The two presidents recently agreed to form a joint Egyptian-Sudanese ministerial committee to overcome any challenges facing relations between the two countries, as part of intensive consultation that aims to achieve a qualitative leap in relations as soon as possible.
They also agreed to maintain the periodicity of holding joint committees on a regular basis, especially for committees that have to do with electricity linkage between the two countries, transportation, infrastructure projects, and the exchange of executive and advisory expertise in different fields.
Relations between Egypt and Sudan are expected to witness a momentum, especially with the start of the electricity linkage project between the two countries, the cooperation in the management and security of airports, and talks to discuss solutions for challenges faced by the Nile Valley Authority for River Navigation, which links the Wadi Halfa region in Sudan with Egypt’s Aswan.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
