US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged South Sudanese leaders today to cut an oil deal with Sudan. ‘You have made your point,’ she said in Juba in the presence of Foreign Minister Nhial Deng Nhial referring to South Sudan’s shut down of oil production in January this year.
Hillary Clinton called the decision, which led both countries to the brink of economic collapse, a ‘strong irrefutable point about your rights to your resources’. She however added that now is the time ‘to get those resources flowing again’.
The meeting today between leaders of the two allied countries came as negotiations with Sudan continued past the 2 August deadline in Addis Ababa. Sudan and South Sudan did not meet the deadline which was set by the United Nations Security Council to compromise over oil, citizenship and disputed border areas.
Speaking at a press conference in Juba after meeting President Salva Kiir, Secretary Clinton urged South Sudan to reach an ‘interim agreement’ with its northern neighbour to help it overcome the impending budget gap and meet the immediate development needs of its people. Hillary Clinton referred to the possibility of other pipelines via Kenya or Ethiopia as a longer-term option: ‘An interim agreement would give time to explore other ways to getting your oil to the market’, she said.
‘We also believe it gives you the time to explore the possibility of another pipeline, which I know that your government is looking at, but that will take many years to do the engineering and to do the construction and then to actually start shipping oil’, she added.
The US Secretary of State and South Sudanese President in their morning meeting discussed the ongoing negotiations in Addis Ababa. Clinton told the South Sudanese president that the United States welcomed the proposals recently made by South Sudan.
South Sudan is offering Sudan an annual compensation package, an offer to resolve the issue of oil transit fees and a new proposal to hold a referendum organised by the AU and the UN on the status of Abyei. Hillary Clinton said these proposals ‘show great leadership and statesmanship’.
International pressure on the South Sudanese government over the last six months has failed to convince the new nation to resume oil production. The ex-rebel government could not yet agree with Sudan on the transit fees of the oil. On this point, Clinton commented that the US is ‘not always going to agree with our friends in South Sudan. But as friends do, we will point out when we agree and when we do not’.
Hillary Clinton also announced in Juba the United States contributes an extra US $50 million to help the refugees coming from Blue Nile and South Kordofan to refugee camps in South Sudan.
She visited South Sudan as part of a tour to seven African countries including Senegal, Uganda and South Africa.