South Sudanese officials hail progress of relations with Khartoum

November 13, 2013 (KHARTOUM) - Senior officials in South Sudan have announced that relations with Sudan are moving in the right direction and expressed hope that cooperation between the two countries can develop into integration, describing tepidity and tensions which marked relations of the two neighbors as “temporary and casual”.

Sudan Popular Congress Party (PCP) presidential nominee Abdullah Deng Nhial (Al-Jazeera TV footage)

South Sudan’s minister of environment, Abdallah Deng Nhial, stressed that the recent positive development in relations between the two countries reflects the “normal situation” and said that previous tensions are “temporary situation”, pointing that ties should develop from cooperation to integration.

He said that the implementation of the four freedoms agreement between the countries is an advanced step which would benefit people in both countries, affirming that coordination in domestic issues would necessarily lead to coordination in foreign relations.

The minister further pointed that the opening of border crossings would benefit citizens in the north and the south particularly those living in the border regions.

Nhial added that both countries need each other and said that oil mustn’t be a cause for dispute between the two countries, noting the economic hardship which followed the closure of the oil pipeline.

Last June, the Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir ordered the closure of pipelines carrying oil from landlocked South Sudan, accusing the latter of continuing to back rebel groups fighting his government particularly in border states of Blue Nile and South Kordofan.

The South Sudanese official called upon officials in Sudan and South Sudan to create an atmosphere conducive for facilitating social mobility and providing opportunities for mutual benefit which would ultimately lead to stability in both countries.

The majority leader of the governing Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) party in parliament, Ateem Garang, for his part, said that relations were marked by temporary tensions but they are currently moving in the right direction following implementation of the cooperation agreements signed between the two countries.

Sudan and South Sudan signed a series of cooperation agreements, which covered oil, citizenship rights, security issues, banking, border trade among others. In March of this year, the two countries signed a matrix containing implementation timelines for these accords.

He added that this is the right path through which we could achieve the interests of the two peoples, pointing to the critical need for achieving peace between the two countries.

(ST)