A breakthrough in the relationships between Eritrea and Ethiopia as Eritrean delegation arrived in Addis Ababa “to chart out a plan for continuous future action”
Source : FANA
borkena
June 26, 2018
A week after Eritrean president Isayas Afeworki disclosed during his country’s martyr day celebration that he will be sending a high-level delegation to Ethiopia, members delegation arrived today at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa to a red carpet reception.
The delegation is composed of Yemane Gebreab, an adviser to president Isayas Afeworki and political affairs head of Eritrea’s ruling party (People’s Front for Democracy and Justice), and Osman Saleh, Eritrean Foreign Affairs minister.
In what appears to be a show of commitment for making peace with Eritrea, prime minister Abiy Ahmed and high ranking government including the minister for foreign affairs, Workneh Gebeyehu, prominent Ethiopian athletes welcomed the delegation upon arrival at the airport. The road around Bole International Airport is decorated with the Eritrean and Ethiopian flag.
The day Eritrean president announced,”We will send a delegation to gauge current developments directly and in depth as well as to chart out a plan for continuous future action”, Abiy Ahmed made a video message to thank the president for making the decision.
It is for the first time for high ranking Eritrean government officials to visit Ethiopia in more than twenty years. The two countries were in a state of “no-peace-no war” situation for two decades. At times deadly skirmishes have been witnessed along their borders. The two countries were also engaged in a sort of proxy war; Eritrean government has been supporting Ethiopian rebels operating within the Eritrean border and the Ethiopian government, under TPLF, tried to help Eritrean opposition.
The Eritrean delegation is expected to hold talks with prime minister Abiy Ahmed on ways of ending hostility between the two brotherly countries that share history and culture, among many other things, and opening a new chapter in their relations.
More than eighty thousand people soldiers were killed from both countries during the two years war between 1998 and 2000.
It was in early June of this year that Executive Committee of Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) decided to accept fully the Algiers peace agreement of December 2000 which officially ended the war and implement it.
Prime minister Abiy Ahmed is said to have plans to visit Eritrea to hold talks directly with Eritrean president Isayas Afeworki although the details of it are not made public yet.
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