Alwaght- Sudan expressed its readiness to “reach a rapprochement with Turkey at any cost,” in response to Egyptian media reports that criticized the Turkish-Sudanese rapprochement, which culminated in the recent visit of Turkish President Erdogan to Khartoum.
This came in statements of the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Culture and Information Ahmed Bilal Osman, during the weekly press conference he holds at the Ministry of Culture and Information in the capital Khartoum.
Osman considered the criticisms of these Egyptian media outlets as an attempt to “seize the opportunities to undermine Sudan, its people and President Omar Al-Bashir.”
On Tuesday, the Turkish president finished his visit to Sudan which he started on Sunday accompanied by 200 businessmen, as part of an African tour. The visit witnessed the signing of 21 agreements in various fields. During the Ankara was given full-rights to rehabilitate the port island/town of Suakin in northeastern Sudan, with a naval dock for both civilian and military vessels on the west coast of the Red Sea.
Relations between Egypt and Sudan are tense and full of quarrels in the media following several controversial issues, including the dispute over the Hala’ib Triangle border and Khartoum’s supportive position towards the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, which Cairo opposes for fear of its impact on its share of the Nile River water.
Osman described Erdogan’s visit to Sudan as “historical and beyond, and it is within the framework of mutual benefits. Cooperation with Turkey came within the framework of the region’s unjust decisions, especially regarding al-Quds (Jerusalem).”
The minister stressed: “We rejected the decision on al-Quds despite the pressures and threats (without providing details about those threats).”
The Sudanese minister said that “talking about the Turkish president’s visit and its distortion to be within the framework of building a Turkish-Qatari-Sudanese axis is wrong and unplanned.”
