The foreign relations of Sudan are generally in line with the Muslim Arab world, but are also based on Sudan's economic ties with the People's Republic of China and Russia. Bilateral relations Africa Americas Asia Europe African regional organizations Sudan is an active member of all pertinent African organizations and is a charter member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963 and headquartered in Addis Ababa. During most of its time as a member of the OAU, it used its membership to keep the OAU out of the civil war. Even so, in 1994, the OAU mandated that negotiations toward ending the civil war be undertaken. Sudan consistently made its presence known in the OAU and continued to do so in its successor forum, the African Union (AU), created in 2002. In contrast to its policy of keeping the OAU out of the war in the South, Sudan accepted 8,000 AU troops in troubled Darfur (see War in Darfur), concluding that it was preferable to have an AU peacekeeping mission than one from the United Nations. However, Sudan both limited the number of AU troops and confined their role to monitoring the situation rather than engaging in more proactive peacekeeping. In mid-2007, al-Bashir finally agreed to allow UN forces to join AU peacekeeping operations in Darfur. The crisis in Darfur prevented Sudan from taking its turn in 2006 to assume the chairmanship of the AU; most AU members wanted Sudan to make more progress in ending the Darfur conflict. Subsequent indictment by the International Criminal Court further complicated al-Bashir's situation, and the AU continued to pass over his name in selecting a chairman. Sudan is a charter member of Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), established in 1996 as the successor to an earlier regional grouping. The focus of IGAD in the early 2000s was regional cooperation among its seven member states. IGAD played a critical role in ending the war between Khartoum and the Sudan People's Liberation Movement/Sudan People's Liberation Army but otherwise was not effective in mediating regional conflicts because of serious differences among its members, especially Ethiopia and Eritrea. Sudan is a member of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and is one of 11 COMESA nations that had joined in a free-trade area and agreed to eliminate tariffs on goods originating in member countries. Sudan is a member of the economic