Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry (R) and his Sudanese counterpart Ibrahim Ghandour attend a press conference after their meeting at Tahrir Palace in Cairo, Egypt on Feb. 8, 2018. (Xinhua/POOL/Khaled ELFIQI)
CAIRO, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Thursday that talks between Egyptian and Sudanese leaders during the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa in January have revealed the roadmap for bilateral relations.
Shoukry's remarks came during a joint press conference after his meeting with visiting Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour.
The meeting came amid strained relations between the two African countries over a number of thorny issues.
The Egyptian minister said that he agreed with his Sudanese counterpart to tackle all bilateral and regional issues as well as to convene the high joint committee at the presidential level this year in Sudan.
Two separate rounds of talks were held between Egyptian and Sudanese foreign ministers and intelligence chiefs, Shoukry said, adding that a four-way meeting was then held.
The Egyptian minister noted that the four-way meeting was characterized by frankness and proved there is a mutual desire to boost bilateral ties and to implement directives issued by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Bashir in this regard.
"We seek to hold periodic summit meetings given their importance in pushing forward bilateral relations," he added.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese Foreign Minister said the directives issued by Sisi and Bashir affirm the two leaders' determination to resolve all the current issues between Cairo and Khartoum and to put bilateral ties back on the right track.
He added that today's talks tackled all the bilateral issues in detail.
An agreement has been reached to hold the four-way meeting periodically, Ghandour said, noting that such meetings touch on issues of contention between the two countries.
The Sudanese minister also revealed that a recommendation was submitted to Sisi and Bashir to hold periodic presidential meetings.
Egyptian-Sudanese relations have been tense over the past few years on various issues, including their difference over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) which Ethiopia is building on their shared Nile River.
While both Ethiopia and Sudan are eyeing massive benefits from the GERD construction, Egypt believes it undermines its 55.5 billion cubic meters as annual share of the Nile River water.
Egypt and Sudan also have a territorial dispute over the border region of Halayeb and Shalateen, which is currently under Egyptian control.
In early January, Khartoum recalled its ambassador to Egypt for consultation over "potential security threats" from Egypt and Eritrea following reported military moves in Eritrea's Sawa area near the border with Sudan's state of Kassala.
Sisi, in turn, denied that Egypt was conspiring against Sudan or Ethiopia, stressing that his country is keen to build positive relations with all other countries and that the peoples of Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia "need investments not wars."
In May 2017, Bashir also accused Egypt of providing military support to armed rebels in his country, which was strongly denied by Sisi.
