Sudan and Ethiopia pledge cooperation

Government delegates from Sudan and Ethiopia meeting in Gedaref,
southeastern Sudan, have pledged cooperation in fields of security, trade and agriculture, Sudanese state media reported. Senior officials of Sudanese and Ethiopian provinces along the border signed on Tuesday "the Gedaref Declaration" after three days of talks. The two sides agreed on reactivating border trade, health, farming and veterinary agreements, and said feasibility studies would be conducted for building roads linking
Sudanese and Ethiopian towns in the neighbouring provinces. Regular meetings every six months have been agreed, with the next one scheduled to be held in Gondar, Ethiopia, in October.

Ethiopia-Sudan relations deteriorated over issues of Islamic
fundamentalism and terrorism in the mid-1990's but improved dramatically with the onset of the Ethiopian-Eritrean conflict which flared up in 1998. Sudan subsequently withdrew logistical support that had been given to Ethiopian opposition groups.