Egypt and Sudan agreed during an emergency meeting of the Egyptian-Sudanese consular committee on Friday to mull ways of accelerating the movement of Egyptian goods heading to Sudan through the joint ports. Ambassador Khaled Yousri Rizk, Assistant Foreign Minister for Consular Affairs and Egyptians Abroad, who chaired the Egyptian side during the meeting, confirmed that among the facilities offered to Sudanese nationals is exemption from registration procedures, visa fees. Sudan's Ambassador to Cairo, Abdel Mahmoud Abdel Halim, said that the meetings of the Committee came after a period of consular concerns of the Sudanese citizens and Egyptians. He explained that this committee is one of the new mechanisms that emerged from the Egyptian-Sudanese Higher Joint Committee, chaired by Presidents Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Omar Al-Bashir. Sudanese authorities have begun last month to implement a decision requiring Egyptian travelers to obtain entry visas, based on the principle of reciprocity, because the Egyptian government imposes the same procedures on Sudanese travelers.

Source: Egypt Independent May 13, 2017 09:00 UTC