Egypt’s President Mohammad Mursi arrived in neighboring Sudan on Thursday to push economic and other ties on a visit Khartoum calls "historic" which comes nearly a year after Mursi’s election.
Egypt's President Mohammad Mursi arrived in neighboring Sudan on Thursday to push economic and other ties on a visit Khartoum calls "historic" which comes nearly a year after Mursi's election.
The two-day trip is the former Muslim Brotherhood leader's first to Sudan, which Egypt jointly ruled with Britain until 1956.
Mursi and his counterpart Omar al-Bashir were to hold talks later Thursday and jointly address a gathering of businessmen from their two nations.
Mursi's office said the visit has "particular importance because it is the first of its kind since the president took office, and is aimed at stressing the special and strong strategic relationship between Egypt and Sudan."
Cairo is keen to establish "a real economic partnership with Sudan, to meet the ambitions and goals of growth and prosperity for both peoples," the Egyptian statement said ahead of the visit.
Sudan is an important ally for Egypt in terms of its agricultural potential and in Cairo's efforts to secure an acceptable agreement with upstream river Nile countries on vital water supplies.
Khartoum has been under US trade restrictions since 1997 for reasons which Washington has said include human rights violations. US Secretary of State John Kerry in March pledged $250 million to help revive Egypt's economy.
Mursi's visit would "complete some issues that have already been agreed" when the two leaders held talks in Cairo last September, Bashir's press secretary said.
These include trade integration, transportation, investment, and the "four freedoms" pact, which gives citizens of each country the right to freely enter and conduct economic activities in the other. It has not been fully implemented.
The two countries have delayed the opening of land border crossings and have a decades-old dispute over sovereignty of the Hala'ib Triangle along the Red Sea.
