Sudanese Foreign Minister: No Obstacles for Russian Base in Port Sudan

 

With Russia’s footprint in the Mediterranean facing uncertainty, the deal for a naval base in Sudan has reached a new milestone. Last week, Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) foreign minister Ali Youssef Ahmed al-Sharif was in Moscow, where he met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Although the negotiations for the base were not part of the meeting, Ali Sharif said there was no disagreement on the deal, assuming that the SAF can win or reach a stalemate in its two-year civil war against the breakaway Rapid Support Forces (RSF).

“There was a deal which was signed and there are no obstacles. We are in complete agreement,” said Sharif.

Russia signed an agreement with the government of Sudan for the naval base under the regime of former dictator Omar al- Bashir, who was ousted in a coup by his former generals back in 2019, leading eventually to the SAF’s rule over most of the country. In 2021, SAF leaders said that the government would review the deal to align with the country’s interests.

The ongoing civil war in Sudan since 2023 has stalled progress on the base deal. A logistical base for Russia is Sudan - the first in Africa - could provide Moscow with desperately-needed access to a regional basing arrangement. Russia’s 50-year foothold in the Mediterranean at the port of Tartus, Syria, is endangered and may already be lost. The setbacks facing the Russian Mediterranean flotilla has likely sent Moscow on an overdrive for an alternative base. It remains to be seen if Eastern Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar or the government of Algeria might offer a base to the Russian Mediterranean fleet, or if such a basing arrangement could be a suitable replacement for Tartus.

Either way, the willingness of Sudan to offer Russia a base is still good news for Moscow. As a logistics support point for the Russian navy, the Port of Sudan could easily accommodate four warships, including nuclear-powered ones. Some analysts believe that the base would restore Russia’s permanent presence in the Indian Ocean. Russia lost this privilege at the end of the Cold War: the Soviet-era naval base in Berbera, Somalia closed in 1997, and the Nokra base in Eritrea (then part of Ethiopia) closed in 1991.

But given its location, the Port of Sudan base would have serious limitations as an alternative launch pad for reconstituting Russia’s Mediterranean Flotilla.

“The logistical constraints of negotiating Suez Canal, particularly in cases of requiring emergency maintenance, are significant. Operationally, canal transits also clearly signpost ship movements to adversaries,” argue naval experts Edward Black and Sidharth Kaushal.