Moscow. June 2. INTERFAX-Negotiations on changing the conditions for the deployment of a Russian naval base in Sudan should be preceded by a financial assessment of the issue, Deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs Alexey Chepa said on Wednesday.
"I think that it is necessary to discuss everything and carefully assess the need for all this. These are expensive things, they require financial assessments. I think that not only the Defense Ministry, but also a lot of other departments should properly assess everything, and then there will be negotiations, " Chepa told Interfax.
According to the deputy, negotiations on changing the terms of the agreement on the deployment of the naval base have not yet been conducted "and could not be conducted", since the Sudanese side has only now announced its intentions.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Sudan, Mohammed Osman al-Hussein, announced the country's intention to review the agreement with the Russian Federation on the deployment of a Russian Navy base in Sudan.
"We are in the process of reviewing the agreement signed between the former government of Sudan and Russia on the Russian military project on the Red Sea coast in Sudan," he said in an interview with Blue Nile TV.
In December 2020, it became known that Russia and Sudan signed an agreement on the establishment of a logistics support point in Sudan (PMTO) Russian Navy. The document was published on the official Internet portal of legal information.
According to the text of the agreement, the maximum number of Russian military personnel in the naval station in Sudan should not exceed 300 people, and no more than four Russian ships can be in it at the same time.
As Russian Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov told Interfax on February 9, a commission of the Russian Defense Ministry visited Sudan within the framework of the bilateral agreement on the establishment of the PMTO. "The reconnaissance commission, which worked there, went out, clarified the technical capabilities and the necessary volume of auxiliary buildings and structures," Ivanov said.
At the end of April, Bloomberg published information that the Sudanese authorities temporarily stopped the agreement with Russia on the establishment of a naval base on the Red Sea. The agency also added that Sudan stops "any new deployment of the Russian military" in one of the bays.
