NAIROBI,Kenya, Sep 24— A decades-old effort to settle the maritime boundary between Sudan and Saudi Arabia is gaining momentum as the Red Sea faces growing security and shipping pressures, potentially putting Egypt’s territorial claims, maritime resources and Suez Canal interests under renewed scrutiny .

📻 Breaking It Down

Sudan has begun assembling the technical and institutional machinery needed to advance maritime delimitation with Saudi Arabia, even as the country remains engulfed in war.

On September 14, Sudanese Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan chaired a meeting linked to the Supreme Council for Strategic Cooperation and Coordination with Saudi Arabia, which the two countries formally established in Riyadh on August 17.

The council is intended to provide a framework for expanding bilateral cooperation across economic, investment, trade and political fields.

📌 What You Need to Know

The Sudanese meeting assigned the Sea Ports Corporation a coordinating role between civilian and military institutions and provided the council’s executive secretariat access to historical maps and documents relating to the Red Sea and Sudan’s borders.

A technical committee involving the National Border Commission and the navy is also expected to review maps and legal documents and prepare a proposed maritime delimitation plan, according to Sudanese reporting.

The move does not, however, mean that Sudan and Saudi Arabia have begun formal negotiations on a final maritime boundary.

Sudan’s own records continue to show no registered maritime boundary agreement with Saudi Arabia.

For Egypt, the issue goes beyond the maritime boundary between its two neighbours.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia signed their own maritime delimitation agreement in April 2016, which entered into force in July 2017 and was registered with the United Nations.

📰 Source: Capital FM Kenya