Russia offers to host Ethiopia and Eritrea talks on the sidelines of its Russia-Africa summit in Moscow


Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the first Russia-Africa summit in Sochi on October 23, 2019

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Russian President Vladimir Putin shake hands at the first Russia-Africa summit in Sochi, Russia, on October 23, 2019. (Photo: The Kremlin, Moscow, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0) [file photo]

Russia says it is ready to host contacts between Ethiopia and Eritrea, including on the sidelines of the third Russia-Africa summit in Moscow on October 28 and 29, as tension between the two neighbors deepens.

Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Alimov made the offer in an interview with the Russian newspaper Izvestia, according to the Russian news agencies TASS and RIA Novosti. "If both sides are interested, we are ready to provide a platform for organizing contacts between their representatives in order to find compromise solutions, including on the sidelines of the third Russia-Africa summit in Moscow," he said. "We expect that Ethiopia and Eritrea will take advantage of this opportunity."

Alimov said the worsening of relations between Addis Ababa and Asmara worries Moscow, and he described both countries as long-standing and reliable partners of Russia, TASS reported. He said Russia had already called on the two governments to show restraint, to strengthen confidence-building measures and to overcome their differences through dialogue.

BBC Amharic, reporting the offer on Saturday, recalled that Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed accepted an invitation from President Vladimir Putin to attend the Moscow summit when the two leaders met during the recent BRICS meeting in India. Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, who has made several visits to Russia, is also expected to attend, the broadcaster said.

BBC Afaan Oromoo said neither Ethiopia nor Eritrea had answered the Russian proposal so far. It also cited a warning by the International Crisis Group that the fighting that broke out again in Tigray in September could pull the two countries into a wider war. By Saturday morning, neither the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ethiopia nor Eritrea's Information Minister Yemane Gebremeskel had commented on the offer on their X accounts, which carried other news on Friday and Saturday.

The offer comes as the two governments trade accusations in public and in letters to international bodies. On Wednesday, Eritrean Foreign Minister Osman Saleh briefed diplomats in Asmara on what Yemane described on X as "Ethiopia's unprovoked acts of aggression and its geopolitical ambitions." According to Yemane's account of the briefing, Osman said the repeated statements by senior Prosperity Party officials about acquiring "sovereign access to the sea" amounted to "a declaration of war against Eritrea" in breach of the UN Charter, and he accused Addis Ababa of arming and sheltering Eritrean opposition groups.

Eritrea's Ministry of Information, in a Tigrigna editorial posted on X on Saturday, said Ethiopia ordered Eritrean diplomats assigned to Ethiopia, the African Union (AU) and the UN Economic Commission for Africa to leave within 48 hours on October 1, after the Ethiopian embassy in Asmara had stopped answering official letters in May and withdrew its staff on August 8 without informing Eritrea's Foreign Ministry. The ministry said Eritrea sent formal protest letters to the AU and the UN commission on October 12, calling the expulsion a clear violation of Article 15 of the AU's 2008 headquarters agreement with Ethiopia and of the AU's 1965 convention on the protection of member states' representatives.

Reactions on X were mixed and often suspicious of Moscow's role. Robel Yeshitla, whose profile lists international law and defense and strategic studies, asked, "What kind of compromise?" He noted that Eritrea was one of only five countries, with Russia, Belarus, North Korea and Syria, to vote on March 2, 2022 against the UN General Assembly resolution that condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

An Eritrean user posting as M_Abraham_Eri91 replied to critics that "Eritrea and Russia have had a strategic partnership for more than 30 years," including military cooperation, and argued that when Russia faced difficulties over Ukraine and NATO, Ethiopia had sided with the United States and the Biden administration.

An Arabic-language account that describes itself as Ethiopia's official Arabic account on X went further than Alimov, writing that Russia was ready to facilitate a settlement between Ethiopia and Eritrea "and to secure Ethiopia's access to the Red Sea through the settlement." That line does not appear in Alimov's remarks as carried by TASS and RIA Novosti, and Mereja could not find it in any Russian official statement.

Addis Standard and Sputnik Africa also reported the offer, and Sputnik's Amharic service quoted the deputy minister as saying Moscow hoped Addis Ababa and Asmara would use the opportunity. RIA Novosti said the third Russia-Africa summit will be held in Moscow on October 28 and 29.

Sources

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