{"id":292480,"date":"2025-02-14T10:00:48","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T02:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=292480"},"modified":"2025-02-14T10:00:49","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T02:00:49","slug":"no-obstacles-to-russian-red-sea-base-sudan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=292480","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;No obstacles&#8217; to Russian Red Sea base \u2013 Sudan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img src=\"https:\/\/www.brudirect.com\/images\/news\/20250214-Africa.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><figcaption>Sudan&#8217;s Foreign Minister Ali Youssef (L) met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>PORT SUDAN,<strong>\u00a0Feb 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; <\/strong>Sudan has said a final deal has been agreed with Russia to establish a naval base on the war-torn country&#8217;s Red Sea coast, saying there were &#8220;no obstacles&#8221; to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>An agreement was discussed under former President Omar al-Bashir, but the military government that overthrew him had later said the matter was under review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sudan&#8217;s Foreign Minister Ali Youssef said on Wednesday a deal had been signed and they were in &#8220;complete agreement&#8221; with Russia over the establishment of the port. He said what remained was only the ratification of the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The US, China and France already have a naval presence in the seas off the Horn of Africa &#8211; a key strategic and trading route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Sudan and Russia have reached an understanding on the agreement regarding the Russian naval base,&#8221; Youssif told a press briefing with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The matter is very simple\u2026 We have agreed on everything,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No further details were provided and Lavrov did not comment on the matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The deal was discussed under Bashir&#8217;s rule in 2019 and initially signed in November 2020, soon after the military takeover, but its fate had been unclear since civil war broke out in 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ongoing civil war, in which thousands have been killed, began after the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) became involved in a vicious power struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moscow has for years sought to establish a base near Port Sudan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The port agreement, which was to last for 25 years, had been for Russia to establish a naval logistics hub, with warships including nuclear-powered vessels, and up to 300 personnel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Red Sea provides a strategic route that is vital to global commerce as well as a defence and geopolitical hotspot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Russian interests in Port Sudan are said to have grown amid fears of losing its military assets in Syria. The new government in Syria last month terminated a treaty granting Russia a long-term lease for a port where Russia has had its only foreign naval base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In recent months, Russian officials have reportedly visited Port Sudan &#8211; the de facto capital of Sudan during the war &#8211; and has sought to cultivate ties with both warring sides in the civil war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Russia has also been expanding its influence in other African countries, including signing military co-operation agreements and displacing traditional Western allies. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>PORT SUDAN,\u00a0Feb 14 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Sudan has said a final deal has been agreed with Russia to establish a naval base on the war-torn country&#8217;s Red Sea coast, saying there were &#8220;no obstacles&#8221; to it. An agreement was discussed under former President Omar al-Bashir, but the military government that overthrew him had later said the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":292484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213,209,217],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292480"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=292480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292485,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292480\/revisions\/292485"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/292484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=292480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=292480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=292480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}