Sudanese official returns from Scandinavian tour
February 2, 2013 (KHARTOUM) – Sudanese Presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie returned from visiting Norway and Sweden, declaring the trip successful and that he hoped that it would open a new page in the relations between Khartoum and the two countries in several areas.
Nafie told a press conference on Saturday morning that he discussed investment, trade and international cooperation ministries ways to develop political and economic relations with diplomats from the two Scandinavian countries.
He said he also met with aid groups and NGOs working in Sudan to facilitate their activities and to develop bilateral relations on the different humanitarian and voluntary aspects, besides meetings with political parties and research centres.
The influential official said that the authorities in the two Scandinavian countries showed keenness to develop their relations with Sudan particularly in the fields of economic activities; hopping that such development provides a basis to engage a comprehensive dialogue with the European Union.
Since the 30 June 1989, the European Union stopped its economic aid to Sudan calling for a return to a democratic regime. Also, atrocities and war crimes in western Sudan pushed Brussels to support the referral of the Darfur conflict to the International Criminal Court.
Last year during a visit to Al-Fasher, EU special envoy to Sudan, Rosalind Marsden, said Brussels would not participate in a donor conference to support peace in Darfur, unless Khartoum pays its financial contributions to the regional authority and achieve justice, as provided in the May 2011 Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD).
However, the EU countries do not have one policy when it comes to their bilateral relations with the Sudan.
Sudanese foreign minister Ali Karti, in a radio talk show on Friday, emphasised that the EU policy is totally different on the bilateral level from the EU policy towards Sudan.
“We plan to build bilateral relations with the European countries”, he said.
He further regretted the pressures that Germany faced to cancel an economic forum to encourage private investment in Sudan, adding that said that dozens of German companies are eager to invest in Sudan.
(ST)