India to send 10 MT life-saving drugs to Sudan
Dec 15, 2020
New Delhi [India], December 15 : V Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs and Omar Gamar Aldin Ismail, Foreign Minister of Sudan Monday held a meeting via video conference to review the bilateral relations since the Transitional Government assumed office in Sudan.
According to an official statement, both the Ministers had a brief discussion on respective national approaches to fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Ministers agreed for further cooperation in sectors such as infrastructure, agriculture, mining, renewable energy, health, and education. MoS invited Omar Gamar Aldin Ismail to visit India early next year for co-chairing the India-Sudan Joint Ministerial Committee meeting. They also agreed to convene the meeting of the Joint Business Council on the sidelines.
Muraleedharan further stated that India would be sending 10 MT of life-saving drugs to the Government of Sudan in coming weeks to help it cope with the COVID-19 situation. Last month, India had delivered 100 MT of food aid to Sudan through an Indian Naval Ship, the statement said.
Muraleedharan congratulated the Transitional Government on the signing of the Juba Peace Agreement and welcomed the removal of Sudan from the US's State Sponsors of Terrorism List and the normalisation of its relations with Israel.
Omar Gamar Aldin Ismail congratulated India on its election to the non-permanent seat of the UN Security Council for the term 2021-2022.
MOS thanked the Sudanese Government for its support to India for its candidature to the UNSC, observer status at the Djibouti Code of Conduct / Jeddah Amendment, and at elections to the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) and International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), the statement said.
India and Sudan historically share very close and friendly relations. India has extended Duty-Free Tariff Preference (DFTP) scheme to Sudan for boosting its exports to India.
Since 2004, the Government of India has implemented 49 projects in the energy, transport, and agro-industry sectors in Sudan through concessional lines of credit worth USD 612 million. In West Asia and North Africa region, Sudan is the largest recipient of annual Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) scholarships. Besides, India also conducts regular customized training programmes in a range of fields for Sudanese Government officials under the India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS) cooperation framework, it said.
