VIENNA: Sudan and South Sudan pledged to work together to rebuild their shattered economies and not to return to war in a joint plea for foreign investment after signing a critical trade and border agreement last month.
In their first high-profile appearance together since signing the deals, ministers from the two countries told an investment conference in Vienna they would work to make peace.
“I assure you ... we are committed, both countries, not to go back to war. We are committed to talk and talk and talk,” Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti said.
The African neighbours signed two weeks ago in Ethiopia several agreements to end hostilities and resume key oil exports from the South through Sudan after coming close to war in April.
Both countries have yet to sort out other conflicts left over from South Sudan’s messy secession last year such as deciding the fate of Abyei and other border regions.
Separately yesterday, insurgents said they had shelled the main city in Sudan’s oil-producing South Kordofan state, the second attack on the city this week.
Fighting in South Kordofan has forced hundreds of thousands to flee their homes and added to tensions between Sudan and South Sudan, former enemies in a civil war that ended in 2005.
The two sides have a history of signing and then not implementing deals, making many potential investors wary of putting money into projects like oil refineries or mineral exploration.
But the loss of foreign money after landlocked South Sudan stopped oil exports through its northern neighbour in January in a row over fees has left both economies in dire straits and pushed them to scramble to replace the lost revenues.
“The shutting off of the oil, it didn’t help either of us,” South Sudan’s deputy minister for international cooperation, Elias Wakoson, told the conference. “Without our economy improving, the economy of Sudan will not improve. Austria is trying to help rekindle relations between Sudan and South Sudan by hosting a conference to drum up investment in both countries.
The forum is a rare opportunity especially for Sudan to get in touch with Western firms which mostly shun the Arab African country due to US trade sanctions in place over Khartoum’s human rights record and past role hosting militants.
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