(Bloomberg) -- An Israeli minister tweeted a photograph of a rare public meeting with a Sudanese official on Wednesday.
Esawi Frej, Israel's minister for regional cooperation, shared a photo of a handshake with Sudanese Justice Minister Nasredeen Abdulbari in a meeting he said took place that day in Abu Dhabi.
“We agreed to advance joint projects in education and culture,” Frej wrote in the tweet, alongside a picture of the two smiling at the camera.
Sudan followed the lead of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain last year in taking steps to normalize ties with Israel, a turnaround for the nation led until 2019 by dictator Omar al-Bashir. Abdulbari has been at the forefront of several Sudanese announcements on the issue.
Sudanese authorities took the step shortly after President Donald Trump signaled the U.S. planned to remove Sudan's 27-year designation as a state sponsor of terrorism.
Normalization has been contentious in Sudan and a source of tension between the military wing of the transitional administration, which initiated the new ties, and the civilian component that's suggested the issue would be better handled when the country forms a parliament or finally elects a democratic government.
Few details have been publicized in Sudan of any official contact or visits between the two sides in recent months.
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