Summary

‘Making Cooperation Attractive: Post-referendum Relations between Egypt and the Sudan’ is the outcome of a one-day policy workshop on future Sudanese-Egyptian relations. The referendum on the future of Southern Sudan is imminent, and policy options for Sudanese-Egyptian relations need urgently to be formulated and debated. Egypt will inevitably be affected by the Sudan's political transition. Egyptian policy-makers and diplomats struggle with fundamental contradictions in Egypt’s regional status, competing priorities, and the need to stay on good terms with all parties in Sudan. Egypt must reshape its regional policy, but Egypt’s national interests in the Sudan preclude neutrality in the processes ahead. It can, however, play a key role in a regional and international effort to secure the peaceful secession of Southern Sudan. It is important for the development of the whole region that Egypt finds a way to continue constructive interaction with political forces in both Northern and Southern Sudan.

The purpose of the workshop was to assist Egyptians, Sudanese and others to fashion and debate new perspectives for relations between Egypt and the Sudan (North and South). The workshop took place on 14 October 2010 at the Park Hotel in Oslo and was chaired by Jacob Høigilt from Fafo. This report contains three papers prepared for the workshop that discuss key issues of Sudanese-Egyptian relations: post-CPA scenarios, regional security and Nile politics. Written respectively by Øystein H. Rolandsen, Peter Woodward and Fadwa Abdel Rahman Ali Taha, these are followed by a short summary of the main conclusions from the workshop’s deliberations. Selected sessions from the workshop and a presentation by Luka Biong at a separate event on 13 October may be viewed on PRIO’s web site: http://www.prio.no/Videos/

The workshop was jointly organised by Fafo and the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) as part of their project on “Egypt and Self-Determination for Southern Sudan”, which is funded by the Norwegian Peacebuilding Centre (Noref).