Within weeks of China hosting Salva Kiir, the President of oil-rich South Sudan, India too has invited the head of the African nation to visit New Delhi. Like China, India too is seeking to protect its substantial interests in the oil sector in a country currently engaged in a debilitating conflict with its northern neighbour, Sudan.
Invites have also been extended to the foreign and petroleum ministers of South Sudan as India works the diplomatic channels to protect its oil interests there. The invites on behalf of the Indian government were extended during the recent visit of India’s special envoy to Sudan and South Sudan Amarendra Khatua to these two countries, said sources.
As India walks the diplomatic tight-rope between two nations at loggerheads, New Delhi is also trying to build pressure on both Sudan and South Sudan to see that their Presidents, Omar al-Bashir and Salva Kiir, respectively come to the negotiating table. Sources said that New Delhi is keen to see the two leaders meet at a presidential summit and hammer out their differences over oil, contested borders, etc. as it feels that there can be no conflict resolution either at the official or ministerial level.
Indeed, there area fears in some quarters that if the Presidents don’t talk in the next two months, a humanitarian catastrophe could unfold in South Sudan, Darfur and the Blue Nile regions. There are also fears that a Libya-like situation could emerge if Western powers decide to start bombing Sudan for violating the UNSC resolution aimed at resolving the conflict.
Mr Khatua, who is currently India’s ambassador-designate to Argentina, also went to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa where the African Union is headquartered. The African Union is trying to find an African-centric solution for an African problem and New Delhi has expressed its support for this initiative as well as the Thabo Mbeki-led African Union High Implementation Panel.