Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- Russia is preparing to create a logistics center (PMTO) for the Russian Navy in Sudan, which will be located in Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast. The corresponding agreement was signed between representatives of Moscow and Khartoum.

The document assumes that the personnel of the new Russian base will not exceed 300 people, and up to 4 Russian warships will be able to stay in the water area ofPort Sudan simultaneously. The agreement is valid for 25 years and will be automatically renewed for 10 years by mutual agreement.

Analyzing Moscow’s intentions to open a PMTO in Sudan, experts point out that Russia is expanding its military presence in Africa, as well as gaining additional opportunities to influence the development of the military-political situation in many countries of the continent, and draw attention to the following.

First, Sudan is strategically located at the crossroads of routes from Central Africa to the north of the continent and the Middle East. Russian basing point in an African country will not only serve the maritime interests of the Russian Federation, but also provide access to Central Africa, where Moscow has significant interests (including in the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo).

Secondly, Russia is interested, on the one hand, in a military presence in the pirate region to maintain safe commercial shipping. On the other hand, Moscow, as a major player in the hydrocarbon market, is making efforts to establish control over as many outlets important for this market as possible, and Port Sudan is one of them.

In turn, for the Sudan, which is experiencing an acute economic crisis, especially for the Sudanese armed forces, even the limited military-technical assistance that Moscow is ready to provide free of charge under the basing agreement will be useful.

On the whole, observers believe that it is fundamentally not so much a military one as an expansion of Russia’s geopolitical presence in Africa. In this regard, the opening of the PMTO is a claim that Sudan, as a politically important country and one of the largest economies in East Africa, officially becomes an ally of the Russian Federation.