South Sudan says will strengthen bilateral relations with Sudan

August 3, 2015 (JUBA) – South Sudanese government has unveiled new diplomatic push towards strengthening bilateral relationship with the government of neighbouring Sudan from which it seceded in 2011, but with which it has been unable to resolve a host of post secession matters, despite signing cooperation agreements three years ago.

According to press reports published in Khartoum, the South Sudanese top diplomat will be in Khartoum very soon. But when asked by Sudan Tribune officials at the foreign ministries in the two capitals failed to indicate the date of the visit saying preparations are still taking place.

The government of president Salva Kiir, according to his foreign affairs and international cooperation minister, Barnaba Marial Benjamin, confirmed his next trip to Khartoum for talks on bilateral relations and the implementation of the cooperation agreement.

“I will be going to Khartoum and will be carrying a special message from our president, General Salva Kiir Mayardit to his brother, Field Marshal Omer Al-Bashir, president of the Republic of Sudan. I will be carrying a message of peace, hope and commitment of the government to implementing the cooperation agreement fully,” Marial told Sudan Tribune on Monday.

The government, the minister added, advocated working together with other countries to build a harmonious world of durable peace and common prosperity.

The top diplomat, also a close political ally of president Kiir hailing from the Lou-Nuer ethnic group of Jonglei state, described his boss as someone who ‘loves peace and advocates that nothing is more valuable than peace”, asserting that the government would ‘do whatever it takes to develop and maintain better relations with all the neighbouring countries, including neighbouring Sudan”.

“It is in the interest of the two countries to maintain a continuation of the stable relation, which will allow our two countries to pursue grand strategies that perpetuate a peaceful co-existence. Our shared interests based on mutual respect will lead to peaceful co-existence,” Marial explained during an exclusive interview.

He said neither Juba nor Khartoum wanted a ‘lose-lose’ relations on the host of contentious matters, pointing that the human spirit could be held within the bounds of either natural necessity or rational prudence.

Meanwhile, the spokesperson of the ministry of foreign affairs and international cooperation added that his country remained committed to the vision of the two viable states living side by side.

Mawien Makol said it was a desire of everybody that the relationship between the two countries was developed and structured in a way that would prevent future confrontation, acknowledging that the national interests of two countries will inevitably collide from time to time but must be contained through open, peaceful and cooperative engagement on issues of mutual benefits.

Sudan and South Sudan have been exchanging mutual accusations with claims that each country supports rebel movements of the other. They both deny the accusations.

(ST)