Monday, December 23, 2024

Sudan Tribune

Plural news and views on Sudan

Ethiopia, Egypt foreign ministers set for talks on bilateral, African concerns

By Tesfa-Alem Tekle

September 14, 2011 (ADDIS ABABA) – Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister and foreign affairs minister, Hailemariam Desalegn led a delegation on Wednesday to Cairo to discuss bilateral ties and security concerns with the Egyptian administration.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Hailemariam Desalegn (R) - Reuters
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Hailemariam Desalegn (R) – Reuters
The Ethiopian minister will on Thursday attend the joint Egyptian-Ethiopian committee that will examine the relationship between the two countries, particularly in terms of trade and investment.

Relations between Ethiopia and Egypt have improved since the downfall of former president Hosni Mubarak in a popular uprising earlier this year.

The new government in Egypt sent a 48-member public diplomacy delegation lasy May to Ethiopia which was shortly followed by a visit of Egyptian prime minister, Essam Sharaf.

Sharaf’s visit is said to have ushered in a new chapter of cooperation between the two countries mainly to end their long-standing dispute over the use of the Nile’s water. Ethiopia wants to use more of the Blue Nile’s water, while Egypt which has the lion’s share of the Nile’s water does not want to change a colonial-era formula giving them veto-right on any water projects on the Nile.

Ethiopia is now seeking to bolster its economic ties with the North African country and to attract more Egyptian investments.

According to Ethiopia Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson, Dina Mufti, as well as bilateral talks, the foreign ministers of the two countries will also confer on a number of African issues, particularly the situations in Sudan, South Sudan, the famine in Somalia and drought in the Horn of Africa.

However the meeting will not address the controversial Nile water issue, Sudan Tribune understands.

Following the two-day meeting headed by foreign ministers of the two countries, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi is due to visit Egypt on Saturday where he is scheduled to meet chairman of the Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF), Hussein Tantawi. Zenawi will also meet, Essam Sharaf, who has been Egyptian prime minister since March.

(ST)

3 Comments

  • belle loboi
    belle loboi

    Ethiopia, Egypt foreign ministers set for talks on bilateral, African concerns
    need to stop talking about Arab League in the name of African countries

    Reply
  • richard
    richard

    Ethiopia, Egypt foreign ministers set for talks on bilateral, African concerns
    THE TWO WIKI FILES THAT FREEZES THE ZENAWI REGIME’S SPINE

    Here we go again, on another eye boggling denials by the shameless minority Ethiopian regime after embarrassed by a series of revelation from a secret US Embassy cables released by the whistle blower website Wikileaks.

    Yesterday, they issued a frantic ‘press statement’ with the usual denials and full of armature diplomatic languages concerning ‘two issues‘ raised on the Ethiopia Wikileaks files.

    The first issue that hits the nerve of the Addis Ababa junta was the release of the file that exposes the pattern and behavior of the Ethiopian security forces on how they plant bombs in the city then later blame on the opposition and neighboring Eritrea.

    Because this latest revelation is to their complete disadvantage specially at a time when they were seeking, in a frenzied campaign together with Susan Rice, for more severe economic sanctions on Eritrea under the pretext that Eritrea planned a terror bomb attack during an African Union summit last January in Addis Ababa.

    The report from a 2006 US Embassy cable reference id: #06ADDISABABA2708, said:

    “An embassy source, as well as clandestine reporting, suggests that the bombing may have in fact been the work of the Government of Ethiopia (GOE) security forces.”

    The Wikileaks report goes on,

    “A typically reliable information source contacted Post to report that” the bodies of three men found at the bomb sites were “men [who] had been picked up by police a week prior, kept in detention and tortured. He said police then left the men in a house and detonated explosives nearby, killing 3 of them.”

    This high profile US government report irrefutably witnessed the pattern and behavior of the minority regimes identical lies about a nearly identical “terrorist attacks” that are staged time and again in different parts of Ethiopia in the hope of getting some short-lived propaganda gains on its opponents by playing the blame game.

    However, this also raises some serious questions about the credibility of the recently released report by the UN Monitoring Group for Eritrea and Somalia which blames Eritrean and the OLF for the January bombing attempt at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

    The second issue that makes the Addis Ababa junta a bit uncomfortable is the release of the file that exposes Zenawi’s ill advice to the Americans on the option of seeing an Al Bashir free Sudan.

    The January 30, 2009 report released by Wikileaks shows discussions that took place between Zenawi and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Phil Carter and during the discussion, Zenawi told the officials that,

    “Toppling the government led by Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir would be the ideal scenario for Washington.”

    Zenawi then went on to wrap up his views by saying that,

    “If he [Zenawi] were the United States’ he would look at two options and the first one, which he clearly conveyed as the preferred choice would be “removing the Bashir regime.”

    However, in its funny denial press statement, the regime tried to downplay the word-to-word accounts of its leader’s discussion with US official on his desire to see the Bashir government gone. The statement went on to say,

    “The Prime Minster has repeatedly pointed out that Ethiopia opposes any regime change policy”

    It also goes on to say also,

    “The Government of Ethiopia has time and again declared its firm position that the responsibility of changing a sovereign government solely rests on the people of the respective countries, not on any other outside forces.

    Unless it is a statement designed as face saving to what amount to be its most embarrassing diplomatic blunders with Sudan, it is in fact in direct contradiction to the regimes recent similar calls for a regime change in Eritrea as well as its hurried recognition of the transitional national council in Libya that brought by NATO’s regime change policy.

    This is what Zenawi said a few weeks ago about his policy shift crap on Eritrea:

    “Ethiopia will continue to work to force the regime in Asmara to change its policies or failing that it will be prepared to change the government itself through any means at its disposal”

    To add some credence to its denials, the regime went on even further and accuses its master’s foreign policies principles.

    “In this regard, the Ethiopian government has a fundamental difference with the United States that sees regime change as an integral part of its foreign relation practices”

    The world has witnessed in recent years how the long destabilizing arm of Ethiopia created the worst humanitarian disaster in Somalia’s history and its continued destabilization efforts by arming and training disgruntled tribes against Eritrea and Somalia. However, the statement tried to paint a rosy color to the regimes undisputable acts of destabilization, interference and subsequent invasion of its neighbors as,

    “The Government of Ethiopia neither interferes with the internal affairs of its neighbors, nor does it cooperate with any external force that meddles in the domestic affairs of any of the regional states”

    The Meles Zenawi regime, true to its deceptive nature, can talk and pretends a lot more than this mere press statement can contain. However, the Wikileaks files on Ethiopia have exposed the Zenawi regime’s deceptions, lies and total disregard for the wishes and aspirations of the people of the region. It also shows the regimes contempt for Ethiopian lives.

    http://tesfanews.net/archives/3816

    Reply
  • syklops1
    syklops1

    Ethiopia, Egypt foreign ministers set for talks on bilateral, African concerns
    Bursa Cam Balkon
    izmir psikolog
    izmir psikolog
    bursa evden eve

    Reply
Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *