Russia, Sudan have good prospects for economic cooperation – Putin

Russia and Sudan have good prospects for economic cooperation in various fields, including energy sector, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday at the meeting with his Sudanese counterpart Omar Al-Bashir.

“We have good prospects in the economic sector. Regarding the energy sector, there are (prospects in) exploration, production and exchange of resources.

“There are prospects not only in the hydrocarbon industry but also in the fields of electricity and development of the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

“All in all, there are a lot of cooperation directions,” Putin said.

Al-Bashir also said that he discussed with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu the issue of defence industry cooperation in the context of upgrading his country’s armed forces.

“As for defence industry cooperation, we must say that weapons we have both for ground and air forces are Russian-made.

“We had a very good meeting with the Russian defense minister this morning.

“We are launching a comprehensive program aimed at re-equipping our armed forces, and we have agreed with [the Russian] defence minister that Russia will assist us in this task,” Bashir said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Al-Bashir noted that Sudan wanted to strengthen its military attache presence in Russia.

“Sudan is monitoring the situation in the Red Sea, U.S. interference in these issues is a problem, it is necessary to discuss the problem from the viewpoint of using bases in that region.

“We are also concerned about the situation in the Red Sea, we believe that US interference in these issues also becomes a problem, and we also want to discuss this issue in terms of using bases in the Red Sea,” Bashir said.