CAIRO, March 3. /TASS/. Deputy Head of Sudan’s ruling Sovereign Council Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (Hemedti) said on Thursday that Khartoum had no objection to hosting a Russian naval base on the country’s territory on condition that it posed no threat to national security, the newspaper Asharq Al-Aswat reported.
Hemedti made this statement upon his return from Moscow where he held a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. "If any country wants to open a [military] base and this meets our interests and does not threaten our national security, we have no problems in relations with anyone, be it Russia or someone else," he said.
Commenting on Russia’s military operation in Ukraine, Hemedti said that Sudan’s position was outlined by the Sovereign Council, which urged the parties to resolve the crisis through a dialogue and diplomacy.
It was reported in early December 2020 that Russia and Sudan had signed a deal on establishing a Russian naval logistics base in Sudan. The naval logistics base is designed for carrying out repairs, replenishing supplies and for the crewmembers of Russian naval ships to have a rest. Under the document, the naval facility’s personnel should not exceed 300 people. Not more than four Russian naval ships may stay at the naval base at a time, the document stipulates.
Sudanese Chief of the General Staff Muhammad Othman al-Hussein said in an interview with the Blue Nile TV channel in June last year that Sudan was "in the process of revising the agreement signed between the former government of Sudan and Russia on the Russian military project on the coast of the Red Sea in Sudan."