By IANS,
New Delhi : Indian External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna Wednesday met Sudan’s foreign minister and is scheduled Thursday to meet a special envoy from South Sudan, which will formally become an independent nation July 9.
Sudan’s Foreign Minister Ali Ahmed Karti met Krishna and called on Vice President Mohammed Hamid Ansari.
South Sudan’s special envoy and minister Priscilla Joseph Kuch also arrived here Wednesday afternoon on a three-day visit.
She will meet the external affairs minister Thursday and also call on Ansari in the afternoon.
This is the first visit by a senior South Sudan official after the February referendum, in which 98 percent of voters opted for independence from Khartoum, Sudan’s capital.
India has extensive economic interests in the now undivided Sudan, with ONGC Videsh having stakes in various oil wells in the north African country.
India’s bilateral trade volume with Sudan in 2010 was around $900 million, while it had extended credit worth $1 billion.
India had welcomed the referendum results and had promised to extend all possible assistance to both sides.