January 9, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) Chief of General Staff, Ltd General Emad al-Din Adawi has delivered a message from the Sudanese president to the Ethiopian Prime Minister on Monday.

According to the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA), Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn discussed with Adawi "bilateral relations and issues related to the countries in the region" without further details.

The visit comes after the deployment of Sudanese troops along the border with Eritrea and the closure of the joint border with the isolated eastern neighbour.

Also, the Sudanese First Vice President Bakri Hassan Saleh was in Asmara for two days on 20 December but nothing filtered about the content of his talks with the Eritrean officials.

The visiting Sudanese general told ENA that Ethiopia is a strategic partner of Sudan, adding the countries will further strengthen their cooperation.

"He stressed that a challenge one of the (two) nations faces would harm the other. Therefore the effort to collaborate in containing problems will continue".
For its part, the office of the Prime Minister said: "Hailemariam has expressed his commitment to strengthening the relationship between the two countries".

It further pointed to the political and economic integration agreements signed between the two countries during the official visit of President Omer al-Bashir to Addis Ababa in April 2017.

At the time, al-Bashir and Dessalegn said they agreed to work together for the interest of the two countries and announced in a joint press conference that they signed a military agreement for mutual defence in the case of foreign aggression on one of the two neighbouring countries.

The Sudanese official media didn’t announce or report about Adawi’s visit to Addis Ababa.