Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti holds talks with Egyptian government officials as part of a sho

Sudan's top diplomat in Cairo for talks

Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti holds talks with Egyptian government officials as part of a short visit to the Egyptian capital
Ahram Online , Monday 3 Mar 2014


Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti attends the Arab League foreign ministers meeting in Baghdad March 28, 2012. (Photo: Reuters)








Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti held talks with his Egyptian counterpart in Cairo on Monday.

Karti is also due to meet with other senior government officials during the visit, the first since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi was ousted last July.

"[Sudan] seeks to foster its political and economic ties with Egypt...and to remove anything that could disturb this relationship,"andnbsp;the Sudanese diplomat told reporters after his meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy.

Karti went on to describe Egypt-Sudan ties as "historic and everlasting."

On the regional front, Sudan has been involved in an ongoing dispute between Egypt and Ethiopia overandnbsp;a giant dam Addis Ababa is building on the Nile River near the Sudanese border.

A joint statement on the mutual and regional issues addressed in Monday's meeting will be released to the press shortly, Fahmy said.andnbsp;

Government officials of the three African nations have met several times in Sudan's capital Khartoum to reach consensus over Ethiopia's controversial hydropower project as Egypt made its concerns known that itsandnbsp;water share might be hugely affected.

Sudan backs the dam, on a tributary of the Nile Riverandnbsp;which provides most of Egypt's water, but vowed recently to continueandnbsp;to be impartialandnbsp;and bridge the gap between Cairo and Addis Ababa.

Egypt's foreign minister visited Sudan last year to bolster mutual ties between the nations, and the Sudanese defence minister was in Cairo in February for similar talks.

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