Sudan Wants to Buy Russian Arms on Credit

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held talks with Sudanese Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Hussein on Thursday. Lavrov promised to assist efforts in settling the Darfur conflict where over 300,000 people have died in ethnic clashes. Khartoum believes that Russia can help only with one thing – weapons. As the Sudanese have nothing to pay for the supplies, Hussein wants to secure a $1 billion loan in Moscow.
Sudan’s Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Hussein came to Moscow a special envoy of President Omar el-Bashir.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at the news conference that talks focused on the Darfur crisis.

“All solutions should be based on respect of territorial integrity and sovereignty of Sudan as well as the choice of the Sudanese,” Sergey Lavrov said yesterday. He reiterated that Russia is set to assist any efforts in settling the Darfur crisis.

As a matter of fact, Khartoum already has plenty of mediators in the Darfur conflict – the United Nations, the Africa Union and the League of Arab States. Sudan’s Defense Minister has quite a definite aim of his visit, according to the information Kommersant obtained. Sudanese President Omar el-Bashir sent a letter to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, asking to sell a large consignment of military jets and helicopters to his country. Moscow has not given any reply yet.

Sudan’s leadership has devised a plan on the total re-equipment and modernization of the country’s military forces. The program is for 25 years. Omar el-Bashir offers Russia the role of the key partner. Under the plan, Moscow will provide the Sudanese army with modern weapons and train local specialists to work with new technology. It will not only secure the Russian military industry with orders for decades years to come but it will also help Russia to expand influence in Africa.

However, what these ambitious plans lack is real financial backing. Khartoum simply does not have enough money for the rearmament program. Therefore, the Sudanese ask Russian for $1 billion in a long-term loan. Moscow is not enthusiastic about the idea. The Kremlin still has disquieting memories of multi-billion military supplies to “progressive regimes” which burdened Soviet economy in the 1970s-1980s. At that time, arms were also sold on credit. Moscow ended up with almost none of the debtor paying the money back. Furthermore, Russia wrote off $10 billion and $4.7 billion of debts to Syria and Algeria, respectively, this year alone. In response, Damascus and Algiers promised to buy in large consignments of arms Russia and pay in real money.

As far as Sudan goes, Moscow should not hope to receive real money even in 25 years’ time. Experts say that the country, devastated by the civil war, will be unable to clear any credits.

Yet, Khartoum has its trumps as well, playing on the striving of the Russian leadership to restore Russia’s status of a super power. Omar el-Bashir plans to personally contribute to pushing the arms deal through. All the more, he has already received Vladimir Putin’s invitation to the Russian capital.