At SPIEF, Deputy Head of the Sovereign Council of Sudan Malik Agar arrived in Russia along with other high-ranking guests. According to experts, the purpose of the visit is to re-conclude an agreement on the construction of a Russian logistics base in Port Sudan, the implementation of which will lead to significant changes in the balance of power in the Red Sea region.

In early June, 2024, Malik Agar, a veteran of Sudanese politics and the second most important person in Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Burhan’s government, who is currently deputy head of the Sovereign Council of Sudan, arrived in Russia on an official visit. Although Agar’s arrival is formally timed to coincide with the opening of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF), negotiations on the construction of a logistics base for Russian Navy ships on the Red Sea coast undoubtedly remain his main goal. It is noteworthy that a similar agreement between Moscow and Khartoum was reached in 2020, but the Sudanese side later announced its intentions to reconsider its negotiating position, which was largely due to the high level of volatility in the domestic and foreign policy of Sudan in the years following the overthrow of Omar al-Bashir and power in the country was unsustainably distributed among various factions of the military and representatives of civil society. Thus, an analysis of the reasons that led to such dramatic changes in the position of the Sudanese authorities is necessary, as well as to assess the real prospects for the implementation of the deal, taking into account the domestic political context in Sudan.

Sudan: who to negotiate with?

Unlike in 2020-2021, when, despite........

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