Foreign Policy: With its agreement with Sudan to establish a naval base, Russia extends its military influence in Africa


Foreign Policy: The first Russian military base in Sudan


Foreign Policy: A military agreement between Sudan and Russia allows Moscow to have a military presence in the Red Sea and Sudan's airports

Foreign Policy, which deals with international policy issues, addressed, in its latest issue, the issue of the naval base that Russia intends to establish in Sudan.

In a

report to its correspondent for National Security and Intelligence Affairs

, Amy McKinnon, the

magazine stated

that Russia has concluded an agreement with Sudan to establish a naval base in that country, in an effort by Moscow to expand its military deployment in the Middle East and North Africa.

The deal, which was unveiled on December 8, allows Russia to send 4 ships and about 300 personnel to the port of Port Sudan on the Red Sea as part of the agreement, which will last for 25 years.

The new facility will be Russia's first naval base in Africa.

Sudan airports

The base will be used as a logistical support center and a repair and resupply point for the Russian Navy on the Red Sea coast.

The agreement grants Moscow the right to use Sudan's airports to transport "weapons, ammunition and equipment" needed to support the naval base.

Port Sudan is much smaller than the Russian base in the port of Tartus in Syria, which is the only other naval facility for Moscow outside the former Soviet republics. However, it will give Russia a strategic foothold on the Red Sea, which connects European and Asian waters, which is one of the most busy waterways for ship traffic. .

In 2017, China had established the first military base abroad at the entrance to the Red Sea in the country of Djibouti, which also hosts the only US military base on the continent.

Restoring Soviet Power

At one point during the Cold War, before its collapse, the Soviet Union had bases in southern Yemen, Somalia and Ethiopia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has made his country's restoration of its global military might a central pillar of his policy since he took office two decades ago.

As it sought to strengthen its presence in the Mediterranean through its interventions in the ongoing conflicts in Syria and Libya, Russia was aiming at the Red Sea.

It should be noted that Russian officials previously explored the possibility of gaining a foothold in Djibouti and Eritrea, but their talks on this matter did not make any progress.

Former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir raised the possibility of his country hosting a Russian base during his meeting in 2017 with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

After the ouster of al-Bashir in 2019, negotiations resumed with the head of the Transitional Military Council in Sudan, Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Wagner Group

The Wagner Group, a Russian private military company, already has a well-established presence in Sudan.

The US State Department has classified it as acting as a proxy for the Russian Ministry of Defense, and it operates in places where Moscow cannot officially intervene, or prefers not to be in the forefront.

Previously, the US Treasury Department imposed sanctions in July on two mining companies belonging to the Wagner Group, which is believed to have the support of Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is close to Putin, for masterminding the plans to suppress the pro-democracy demonstrations that toppled the rule of Bashir in Sudan.

"Prigozhin and his associates are exploiting the natural resources in Sudan for personal enrichment and spreading their negative influence in the world," US Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnuchin said in a statement issued at the time.