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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Bringing Sudan In From The Cold |
| 2018-03-23 |
| [All Africa] After decades of frozen relations with the United States, Sudan is poised to come in from the cold. Following the October 2017 relaxation of longstanding sanctions, Sudan appears eager to continue US engagement. However, facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... since October, momentum for next steps toward improving the bilateral relationship has slowed. The US-Sudan relationship is imperfect, and there are many enduring obstacles to full normalization‐including Sudan's need for greater political freedoms, economic reforms, and genuine peace in areas of the country long beset by conflict. Though daunting challenges remain, the best chance to achieve further progress is more and deeper US engagement, not less. Further delay on the next phase of US-Sudan relations jeopardizes the best US opportunity in nearly three decades to influence positive change in Sudan. Moreover, it risks giving Sudan's hardliners an excuse to walk away from the United States and into the arms of US strategic rivals Russia, China, or ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... On March 8, in an effort to reaffirm the importance of a timely second phase of engagement, the Atlantic Council's Sudan Task Force released three issue briefs offering specific recommendations to the administration of US President Donald J. Trump on future relations with Sudan. The briefs focus on three critical and related topics: political reform and governance; economic reform; and opportunities for cultural engagement. |
| Posted by:Fred |