Sudanese Leaders Meet for Talks Ahead of South’s Independence

Tesfa-Alem Tekle

3 July 2011

Addis Ababa — The leaders of North and South Sudan have arrived in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, to attend a summit to discuss post-independence relations less than week before South Sudan secedes from the North.

The Summit is being held under the auspices of the regional Inter Government Agency on Development (IGAD), which brokered the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement ending decades of civil war.

Ethiopian State television (ETV) late on Sunday displayed the arrival of Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al-Bashir and first Vice President – and President of the autonomous region of South Sudan – Salva Kiir.

Upon arrival at Addis Ababa Bole international Airport, the two leaders were warmly welcomed by a number of higher government officials and diplomats.

The final implementation of Sudanese peace process will top the summit’s agenda when it kicks off on Monday.

President Bashir met on Sunday evening with Sudan’s vice-president and South Sudan leader Salva Kiir Mayardit who told reporters following the meeting that he renewed his invitation to the President Bashir to attend the 9th July celebrations of the independence.

Kiir also stressed that relations between the North and South Sudan should remain good after the independence.

Also the former South African president Thabo Mbeki who brokers talks on the remaining issues briefed Bashir on Monday’s meeting and the latest development in the talks between the two sides.

Based on recommendations forwarded by the IGAD Foreign Ministers during the June 28-29 meeting held during in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, IGAD will advise a breakthrough to the disputed oil-producing region of Abyei and also on demarcating the ill-defined North-South border.

Just days ahead of partition the two parties have yet to announce agreements on a range of issues from national assets to citizenship. A new oil deal is also needed. Under the CPA South Sudan’s oil is split 50-50 with the North.

However for the foreseeable future South Sudan will have to continue using North Sudan to refine and export its oil. It is expected that a fee will be agreed to allow the South to export its oil, the revenue of which provides 98 percent of the Southern governments budget.

The regional bloc will also discuss the security situation in Somalia and Eritrea’s activities in the region.

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