MOSCOW. April 16 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia has positively assessed the Sudanese denial of support to the anti-Russian resolution passed in the UN, Director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Oriental Studies Institute Vitaly Naumkin told Interfax-AVN on Wednesday. He was commenting on the Tuesday meeting with institute employees with Sudanese Foreign Minister Mohammed Ali Ahmed Karti.
"The Sudanese side emphasized with the similarity of the situations in Russia-West and Sudan-West relations at the meeting," Naumkin said.
He quoted the Sudanese minister as saying "the West is not fair either to Russia or to Sudan. Certain Western forces distort the Sudanese situation and the processes underway there."
The institute employees and the Sudanese foreign minister "exchanged opinions on the situation in the Middle East, the "Arab Spring" issues and transformation the Arab World is undergoing," Naumkin said.
"The minister characterized the current situation in the Middle East as dangerous for the region, as the West is trying to interfere in its affairs and deliberately distorting the image of people who disagree with Western policy and try to conduct an independent course, for instance in such countries as Sudan," he continued.
"In turn, we explained our position on the Middle East situation. For instance, we positively assessed the fact that Sudan did not support the anti-Russian resolution in the United Nations," he said.
"We agreed that the Sudanese Foreign Ministry would promote meetings between Sudanese specialists, scientists and policy experts and their Russian colleagues. The minister expressed the wish for more frequent exchanges of publications and consideration of a joint research project. Steps towards the development of scientific and cultural cooperation were mapped out," Naumkin said.
A devastating civil war between the Islamic North and the Christian and Animist South occurred from 1983 to 2005. A comprehensive peace agreement was concluded in 2005. A referendum on the independence of South Sudan was held in early 2011 and the country split in July. The secession of South Sudan did not bring peace to Sudan and its southern neighbor. There is a protracted conflict in Darfur and government forces have been sporadically clashing with insurgents in South Kordofan and Blue Nile states for the past two years.