Sudan's interior minister, Lt Gen Babiker Samra Mustafa Ali, and Pakistan's interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, signed a visa-free travel agreement for diplomatic and official passport holders in Islamabad and agreed to sign a memorandum on combating cybercrime.
Sudan and Pakistan on Saturday 7 November signed an agreement allowing holders of diplomatic and official passports to enter each other's countries without a visa, Pakistan's Ministry of Interior said, according to Dawn.
The agreement was signed by Pakistan's interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, and Sudan's interior minister, Lt Gen Babiker Samra Mustafa Ali. "This agreement marks an important milestone in bilateral relations between Pakistan and Sudan," the Pakistani ministry said in a statement on X, adding that the facility would make high-level contacts and exchanges of delegations easier.
Cybercrime and police training
Earlier on Saturday, during delegation-level talks, the two sides decided to sign a memorandum of understanding on combating cybercrime, the ministry said. The Sudanese minister said his country wanted to benefit from Pakistan's expertise and experience in that field. According to the statement, the two sides also agreed to expand cooperation on security, internal affairs, police training, institutional cooperation and Pakistan's National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA), which runs the country's identity system. Pakistan's minister of state for interior, Tallal Chaudhry, attended the meeting.
"Pakistan is ready to extend all possible cooperation to Sudan in peace-building and reconstruction," Naqvi was quoted as saying. The statement did not give a date for signing the cybercrime memorandum or details of the other areas of cooperation. CERHA found no Sudanese government readout of the visit at the time of writing.
Context
Pakistan maintains diplomatic relations with the army-led authorities in Port Sudan, which most governments recognise as Sudan's government. The visit is part of a wider diplomatic effort by Port Sudan to strengthen ties with states in Asia, the Gulf and Africa as the war with the Rapid Support Forces, now in its fourth year, continues.
Cybercrime law is a sensitive issue in Sudan. The Sudanese Journalists' Syndicate said on 2 November that complaints under the Cybercrime Act had been filed against 47 journalists and media organisations during the war, after which 18 journalists were declared wanted, and warned that recent amendments and a new national anti-cybercrime mechanism lacked safeguards for free expression. It has documented 673 violations against the press since April 2023. Tasis has not commented on the agreement.
Image: Pakistan's interior minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi in 2024. UK Home Office, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.