The Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted a roundtable today with two senior representatives of the Government of the Republic of Sudan: Sayed El Khatib, lead negotiator of the Government of Sudan on general issues, advisor to the president on US Relations, and director of the Center for Strategic Studies in Khartoum, and Dirdeiry Mohamed Ahmed, advisor to the president on Abyei.
The two representatives discussed prospects for US-Sudan Relations, responding in part to the policy address delivered by US Special Envoy for Sudan and South Sudan Princeton Lyman at the Atlantic Council on August 1, 2012, which called for renewed engagement between Washington and Khartoum. They also touched on a range of issues, including Sudan’s economic prospects and potential opportunities for American participation in Sudan’s economy and political debate.
The representatives from Khartoum were accompanied by Ahmed Badawi, managing director of the Sudan Center for Strategic Communications. Also attending the discussion and briefly addressing the forum was Ambassador Emad Mirghani Abdelhamid Altohamy, chargé d’Affaires of the Embassy of the Republic of Sudan to the United States.
Ansari Center Director J. Peter Pham welcomed participants to the event and moderated the discussion, which included US government officials, representatives of nongovernmental organizations, leading academic and think tank Africa experts, and members of the business community.
The Ansari Center previously hosted analogous roundtables for the new South Sudanese ambassador to the United States as well as for a delegation of government ministers from the Republic of South Sudan.