China welcomes resumption of Sudanese talks

China Friday welcomed next week’s resumption of talks between Sudan and South Sudan and urged both nations to cooperate with international efforts to resolve issues linked to the recent civil war. African Union mediator Thabo Mbeki announced in a letter on Thursday that top negotiators from the two sides will meet in Addis Ababa on May 29 to resume talks suspended after border fighting erupted in April. The former South African president had shuttled between Khartoum and Juba since last week in an effort to push both sides back to talks. The U.N. has demanded that Sudan and South Sudan cease weeks of hostilities that it said posed a serious threat to regional peace and security. “We welcome the attitude shown by South Sudan and Sudan and the resumption of talks,” Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters. “We hope the two sides can earnestly follow the AU (African Union) road map and the relevant UN Security Council resolutions to resolve the outstanding issues through negotiations.” China backed a unanimous May 2 U.N. Security Council resolution ordering Sudan and South Sudan to halt weeks of border fighting that has threatened to reignite a civil war that raged from 1983 to 2005. Analysts say China has been balancing its support between old ally Sudan and newly-independent South Sudan, which was the source of five percent of its oil until a shutdown in January. South Sudan separated with about 75 percent of the former united Sudan’s oil production, but Juba still depended on the north’s pipeline and Red Sea port to export its crude. The protracted dispute over fees for use of that infrastructure was at the heart of tensions which brought the two countries to the brink of all-out war and led South Sudan to halt its crude production. South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir visited Beijing in April and received an $8-billion loan for infrastructure development in the impoverished country.