Heading East is an Absolute Necessity

Simply
Heading East is an Absolute Necessity

By: Dr. Adil Abdul Aziz Al-Faki

adilalfaki@hotmail.com
I was part of the presidential committee that visited Russia in 2017, and it was agreed at that time to cooperate in the field of mineral exploration and investment, the development of Sudanese oil fields, remote sensing techniques and their use in plant and animal statistics, and other vital fields. Accordingly, the ground is available for unlimited strategic cooperation with Russia.
Sudan’s economy is considered one of the small economies in the world, with a gross domestic product (GDP) of about $51.7 billion, according to the 2022 census, down from the ceiling it reached in 2017, which was $129.7 billion (World Bank statistics). At that time, it was expected that Sudan would move to the list of medium-developed countries with continued positive growth rates, but a terrible decline occurred in the first and second transitional government periods due to weak and poor government performance, turbulent security conditions throughout the period in question, the Corona pandemic (2020), and floods (2021).
In light of the war, Sudan is now facing very critical economic conditions, as economic growth is expected to decline by -18%, with almost complete destruction of the industrial sector, and significant destruction in the services sector and the agricultural sector.
There was a significant decline in the collection of public revenues, and a similar decline in Sudanese exports, with difficulty in collecting export revenues, and a decline in migrant remittances. This led to a continuous and successive decline in the value of the Sudanese pound against free foreign currencies, especially the dollar.
Stopping deterioration and restoring growth requires huge economic resources pumped into the economy. Helping poor countries achieve economic growth and fighting hunger and poverty are the goals of international financial institutions such as the International Finance Corporation, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Funded by these institutions and donor countries. But the unified position of these institutions and Western donor countries is that they will not cooperate and provide their funding except to a civilian government in Sudan. This is a clear political position that does not lend itself to interpretation.
The state in Sudan must turn to strategic partnerships that do not impose political conditions. The United States, Britain, and Germany have had a relative decline in their economic influence in favor of other countries.
According to the World Facts 2024 census issued by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the world economy is led by China with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $25.7 trillion, followed by the United States with a GDP of $21 trillion, India comes third with a GDP of $10 trillion, and Japan is fourth with a GDP of $5 trillion. Germany is fifth with a GDP of $4.5 trillion, and Russia is ranked sixth in the world with a gross domestic product of $4 trillion.
China and India have previously invested in the Sudanese oil sector on a large scale, and did not impose political conditions. Russia exchanged visits with Sudan, and cooperation between the two countries was raised in 2017 to the presidential level, where Sudan was represented by the Vice President of the Republic and Russia was represented by the Russian Prime Minister.
With the visit of the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister, the Russian presidential envoy to Sudan, and the visit of the Director of Sudanese Intelligence, Lieutenant General, Russia’s favorite seems that there is an opportunity to re-establish strategic cooperation between the two countries. God bless.