South Sudan\'s President Kiir terminates trip to China

South Sudan\'s President  Kiir terminates trip to China President of South Sudan, Salva Kiir cut short his visit to China, which was expected to end next Saturday. While the Sudanese government has decided to take fiscal measures to support the armed forces. Spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Liu Wenmen, announced that Salva Kiir has cancelled his trip to Shanghai which was to start on Thursday. Liu did not mention the exact date of the departure of the president of South Sudan from China.
The South\'s president met his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao Tuesday in Beijing where the two sides signed a number of agreements of mutual cooperation, according to Sudan\'s Al Shorouk TV, including a contract under which China is committed to fund an oil pipeline in the territory of South Sudan allowing Juba to export its crude without the need to use Sudanese land and facilities.
Wenmen said that the ministry representative for African affairs, Chung Jiang, will visit the two countries to promote dialogue and negotiations, and that his country hopes Sudan and the South  will  reach  peaceful coexistence in order to achieve common development.
During his participation at the meeting of the peace and security council of the African Union to discuss the latest updates between North and South Sudan,  The Foreign Affairs Minister of Southern Sudan, Deng Alor said:  \'\'We believe that a negotiated settlement between the two sides is the best available option.\" He pointed out that his country was ready to return to negotiations immediately, and that the South is ready also to sign an agreement for a ceasefire after the clashes that erupted between them around the area of ??Heglig in South Kordofan in Sudan. While Sudanese Foreign Minister Ali Karti announced in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa,  that Khartoum is  ready to negotiate with the southern state and to give priority to the question of security in these negotiations.
Meanwhile, the Sudanese Minister of Finance Ali Mahmoud, decided to impose financial austerity and submitted a report to the institution\'s government leaders, stating the required financial measures needed to support the armed forces. He added: \"The Ministry decided to stop allowances for the President and his deputies, and ministers and all financial allocations for the leadership staff, and reduce government spending, which includes fuel and electricity and travel.\" He mentioned that a circular in this regard would be issued shortly to all organisations and bodies of the state. He emphasised that the civil service is the second line of defence after the armed forces, and that the situation is reassuring in terms of the availability of petroleum products and consumables saying that these financial measures were \"necessary in the current circumstances, and must besupported by the Sudanese army and other regular forces\" adding that the army would confiscate any goods and means of transport if  founded heading  to the Southern state. \"
A source in the Ministry of Finance of Sudan told Arabstodaythat the measures indicate that the economic situation was likely to be in trouble due to the South\'s aggression on Heglig.   \"These measures may not be enough to make Khartoum survive this economical challenge\" he said.
On the other hand, other sources in southern Sudan said that the problems facing the government of the South are the scarcity of fuel together with severe food shortages and medical supplies in the wake of the Sudanese government\'s  tight-fist on the movement of trade with the South, including goods smuggling from Sudan, adding that the new arrangements by the Sudanese Minister of Finance, \"will spread concern about the economic future of the country.\"