Egyptian President Morsi conducted a 24 hour visit. His visit included an appearance at Al-Noor mosque in Khartoum, where he said:

“We in Egypt and Sudan are integrated, and you will find enemies for this integration”.

Read below to news reports on April 5, 2013 by Yahoo News and VOA (English language service).

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Egypt, Sudan plan to double trade, Morsi says

“We in Egypt and Sudan are integrated, and you will find enemies for this integration,” Morsi told thousands of people, including Bashir, at Al-Noor mosque in Khartoum North.

Egypt and Sudan plan to double their trade and investment, stepping up cooperation in sectors ranging from manufacturing to tourism, President Mohamed Morsi said on Friday as he ended his first visit to Khartoum.

“We agree to benefit from all the resources we have to reach full integration, through joint agricultural projects for food security, and to double the amount of trade and investment,” Morsi told reporters at a press conference with his fellow Islamist, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir.

Morsi arrived on Thursday evening in Sudan, which Egypt jointly ruled with Britain until 1956, and left after about 24 hours.

Bashir’s office called the visit “historic” but observers questioned why Morsi had not come sooner.

Morsi, a former Muslim Brotherhood leader, was elected in June after a popular uprising toppled long-time strongman Hosni Mubarak in 2011 in of the region’s Arab Spring revolts.

Mubarak’s regime had strained relations with Sudan for years.

The deposed leader blamed Sudan for a 1995 assassination attempt against him in Ethiopia, when the veteran Islamist Hassan al-Turabi was a key figure in the Khartoum government.

To boost investment, Morsi said the two countries plan to build in Khartoum North a two-million square metre (2.4 million square yard) manufacturing park to produce ethanol and pharmaceuticals.

“We agreed on protocols to develop tourism, and the Red Sea area,” Morsi added.

The neighbours have a decades-old dispute over sovereignty of the Halaib Triangle along the Red Sea but Morsi hinted at a resolution.

“There is no problem of borders between the two countries and in the future it will be solved,” he said.

Sudan and Egypt have delayed opening land crossings but the two leaders now say road links will operate imminently.

Bashir said they have also decided on a railway connection.

Each country has had economic or security reasons to hold up opening the land crossings, University of Khartoum political scientist Safwat Fanous said.

Egypt was the third-largest investor in Sudan, with stakes valued at $5.4 billion, Cairo’s then-prime minister Essam Sharaf said two years ago.

Both nations now face severe economic challenges.

Sudan has been an important ally for Egypt in terms of its agricultural potential and in Cairo’s efforts to secure an acceptable agreement with upstream Nile countries on water supplies.

The Nile is virtually the only source of water for Egypt.

“Egypt desperately needs Sudan,” a foreign diplomat said.

Two years ago Ethiopia announced the construction of the Renaissance Dam, which aims to be the largest hydroelectric plant in Africa.

Bashir said a technical team is assessing the dam’s potential impact on his country and Egypt, which will cooperate “to build harmony” with the Nile valley states so that all are in agreement on proposed projects.

Ties between the Islamist regimes in Cairo and Khartoum pose no threat, Morsi said earlier Friday.

“We in Egypt and Sudan are integrated, and you will find enemies for this integration,” Morsi told thousands of people, including Bashir, at Al-Noor mosque in Khartoum North.

Banners outside proclaimed, “Sudan and Egypt are brothers”, and shouts of welcome greeted the visiting leader.

It was not clear to which “enemies” he was referring.

Relations between Abu Dhabi and Cairo have been strained since Morsi’s election.

Both Egypt and Sudan also face internal turmoil.

Turabi was among a group of political figures who met Morsi on Friday at a luxury hotel.

He later told AFP the “revolutionary” Egyptian regime should foster tighter ties between its people and those of Sudan, which he said is run by a “dictatorship.”

Turabi was a key figure behind the coup that brought Bashir’s regime to power but later broke with him and now says the government should not be considered as Islamic. (Source: Egypt, Sudan plan to double trade, Morsi says – Yahoo! News)

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Egypt Wants to Fortify Ties with Sudan

Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has met with Sudanese leaders in Khartoum, vowing to solidify ties between the two countries, which at one time were united.

President Morsi received applause from a crowd of worshippers at a mosque in Khartoum, where he addressed them following Friday prayers.

It was Morsi’s first visit on a tour of countries with which Egypt shares a land border. He told his audience that he intended to reopen that long-closed land border in several places to strengthen what he termed “unity” between the two countries.

Morsi said that Egypt and Sudan are one nation, share one Nile River, one sense of purpose, and one leadership with the same goals. He insisted that Egypt wants what he calls the Nile Axis of world development between the Arabs, Islam and Africa to be a source of rebirth, but that this cooperation and unity is not aimed against anyone.

Morsi said Egypt and Sudan have “agreed to reopen road links between them to the east of the Nile” and that ultimately that would lead to reopening other roads between the two countries “to join the manpower and production capacities of both nations.”

The Egyptian president told businessmen earlier, in a joint meeting with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir, that he wanted to “increase investments between the two countries.”

Veteran Egyptian editor and publisher Hisham Kassem says that Morsi’s previous trips abroad have not been overly successful and that it was not clear exactly what he intended to accomplish by visiting Sudan:

“It’s a zero-sum foreign policy. None of his international visits have amounted to anything. He goes to China claiming that it’s going to balance out American influence in the region. Do you think China will risk meddling in the area of influence of the United States? And now we see him going to Sudan. He’s talking about increasing trade and investments. What are we going to increase trade in, cayenne pepper and camels and goats?,” Kassem said.

Kassem added that one major issue that concerns both countries is the longstanding demand from Nile basin states for Egypt to reduce its share of water from the river. But, he says, there are people “far better qualified” than Morsi in the Egyptian military and intelligence community to negotiate the issue.

Both Egypt and Sudan were once united, under the Egyptian monarchy. Khartoum

gained formal independence in 1956. The two countries have had rocky relations since an attempt to assassinate former President Hosni Mubarak in Addis Ababa in 1995. The Egyptian press accused Sudan of being responsible for the attempt. (Source: Egypt Wants to Fortify Ties with Sudan – VOA)

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