North, South Sudan leaders arrive in Ethiopia for summit
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By Tesfa-Alem Tekle
July 3, 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.
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Bashir and Salva Kiir in Khartoum (file photo)
The Summit is being held under the auspices of regional body the 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
Salva Kiir, wo is also the President of the autonomous region of South
Sudan.
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 9 July celebrations of the South’s 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.
(ST)
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