Egypt Revive Integration Project with Libya and Sudan

Egypt is trying to revive an old integration project that links the country with Sudan and Libya, Foreign Minister Mohamed Amr has said. The project known as the Golden Triangle, which seeks to combine Egyptian labor with Libyan capital in the vast agricultural areas of Sudan. He said that the project will benefit the three countries, and he believes that tri-lateral cooperation will flourish in the future, the Sudanese Al-Raed newspaper reported.

Egypt's military ruler, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, held talks with Libya’s National Transitional Council (NTC) chief Mustafa Abdel Jalil and Prime Minister Abel Rahim al-Kib to boost ties between the two neighbors, whose longtime autocratic leaders were both toppled last year. Libya will not dispose of investments made by former leader Muammar Qadhafi in neighboring Egypt, provided they are financially sound, Libyan Prime Minister Abdurrahim al-Keib said.

Amr also said that Sudan and Egypt have found common ground with regards to the Nile water issue, and clearly conveyed that fact during his visits to five Nile Basin countries. Following years of barren negotiations, in 2011, seven upstream African countries —Ethiopia, Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, DR Congo, Rwanda, Burundi — ratified a new water-sharing deal to replace an agreement that gives Egypt and Sudan majority control of the water flow.

As to bilateral relations, Amr pointed to a project for building roads east and west of the Nile, which is expected to be completed in a few months, and another for facilitating the flow of trucks to and from crossings on both sides. He also mentioned a million-acre joint agricultural project. On his visit to Juba, South Sudan’s capital, which preceded his visit to Khartoum, the foreign minister said it dealt with joint projects in health, agriculture and the Nile water, adding that President Salva Kiir expressed the willingness to share South Sudan’s quota with Egypt. Amr also visited Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda and Congo on his African tour of the Nile Basin countries.