Operation Kaveri and the Foreign Office Consultations: how India deals with Sudan

Background

India's channel to the Sudan now in the headlines runs through Port Sudan, not Khartoum. The ninth round of India-Sudan Foreign Office Consultations was held in Port Sudan, co-chaired by Joint Secretary for West Asia and North Africa M Suresh Kumar for India and Undersecretary of Sudan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maowia Osman Khalid Mohammed, and the two sides agreed that the next round will be held in New Delhi. They reviewed political, trade, investment, capacity building, health, education, energy, mining, agriculture and digital public infrastructure cooperation, and India cited its ITEC programmes and ICCR scholarships. When the war broke out, India ran Operation Kaveri to evacuate its nationals: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said 3,862 people who wanted to leave Sudan were brought home, using five naval ships and 17 air force aircraft. INS Sumedha carried the first 278 evacuees from Port Sudan to Jeddah, where India set up a control room and transit facility, and INS Teg followed with officials and relief supplies.