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Sudanese president plans to visit Russia in late 2017

The President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, plans to visit Russia in between October and December

MOSCOW, August 4. /TASS/. The President of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, plans to visit Russia in late 2017, presumably between October and December, Sudanese Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Atta Al-Mannan Bakhit told TASS.

"The date is not yet fixed but it will be before the end of this year," he said.

Issues to consider

The Sudanese minister pointed out that media reports saying the visit was going to take place in the second half of August were not correct. He said that the visit was not planned for the summer. "As from September, we are going to plan the visit ," Atta Al-Mannan Bakhit said.

According to him, the exact date will depend on technical issues that need to be tackled, including the preparation of documents planned to be signed during the visit. "It will be a historical visit, a new milestone in the relations between the two countries," Atta Al-Mannan Bakhit noted.

He did not clarify what kind of contracts could be signed during Omar al-Bashir’s visit to Russia, but said that there were numerous possibilities for economic cooperation between Khartoum and Moscow in various spheres. "Many Russian companies are very active in mining, especially gold," he said. "One of the best international partners in the field of mining are Russian companies," the Sudanese minister added. At the same time, he said that there was room for bilateral cooperation, particularly in agriculture.

Apart from economic cooperation, the parties will discuss the situation in Sudan’s neighboring countries, including Libya and Yemen, as well as in East Africa in general. According to Atta Al-Mannan Bakhit, there will be a thorough discussion of these issues as the two countries will try to reach common ground.

Moscow consultations

The Sudanese diplomat said that a number of issues concerning cooperation between the two countries had been discussed at the Thursday meeting of the Russian-Sudanese high-level working committee. Atta Al-Mannan Bakhit attended the meeting together with Russian Special Presidential Envoy for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov.

"This was a regular meeting," the Sudanese minister said. "We have many common ideas, common positions on many issues and soon I think you’ll see a concrete output of these discussions," he noted adding that the "discussion was very fruitful.".