Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki during talks with Russian Transport Minister Dmitry Yadrov in Moscow, in a still from a video released by Russia’s Transport Ministry and shared on October 31, 2026. Photo: Sputnik Africa (@sputnik_africa) via X
Russian companies are ready to take part in building and modernizing berths at Eritrea’s ports and could help develop its railways, Russia’s Transport Ministry said after a meeting with President Isaias Afwerki.
Transport Minister Dmitry Yadrov met Isaias in Moscow, where the Eritrean leader attended the third Russia Africa summit this week, Sputnik Africa reported on Saturday, citing the ministry. The talks focused on port infrastructure, with Russian companies “expressing readiness to consider participating in projects involving the construction and modernization of berths and coastal protection structures,” the ministry said.
The two sides also discussed the railway sector. Russia could provide strategic and technical consulting services and support the construction and modernization of Eritrea’s road and railway networks, the ministry said, according to Sputnik. It gave no figures, timetable or names of companies, and it did not say which ports were discussed. Eritrea has two main ports on the Red Sea, Massawa in the north and Assab in the south, near the strait that links the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
In its own statement, Russia’s Transport Ministry said specialists from the two countries would jointly identify routes and the types and volumes of cargo that could form the basis for more shipping. It said Russian consulting could include development plans for Eritrea’s transport system, feasibility studies and training, and that Yadrov invited Eritrean colleges to join a Russian African transport university network that it said already links 38 Russian universities and schools in 13 African countries. Yadrov also invited an Eritrean delegation to a transport and logistics forum in St. Petersburg in the spring of 2027, according to the ministry’s statement as reposted by the Eritrean news site Dehai.
The meeting followed talks between Isaias and President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, which Mereja Media reported here.
The new talks come as Russia is also deepening ties with Ethiopia. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said this week that Ethiopia had received Russian Su 35 fighter jets, BBC Amharic reported, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov offered to host Ethiopian and Eritrean leaders in Moscow at a time when the two neighbors have cut diplomatic ties and fear a new war. Abiy has repeatedly said Ethiopia needs access to the sea, which Eritrea sees as a threat to its sovereignty over Assab.
On X, Eritrean accounts welcomed the news. Simon K Hagos (@tewerwari_1) wrote that a deal on renovating and developing Assab and Massawa had been signed between Eritrea and Russia, contrasting what he called “tangible cooperation deals” with Ethiopia’s arms purchases. Neither Russia’s ministry nor Eritrea’s Ministry of Information has announced a signed agreement, and Mereja Media could not confirm one. Sharron Yemane and others shared the Sputnik report.
The American writer Thomas C. Mountain, who often writes about Eritrea, wrote that Russia “might be investing in building a railroad for Eritrea,” probably to link a new potash mine to the coast, and estimated that a railway costs about one million dollars per kilometer plus rolling stock. Without a railway, he said, 500,000 tons of potash a year would have to move by truck from the Danakil area to Massawa. Those figures could not be independently confirmed.
Others were skeptical. Yordi Yori Gebre (@Ygebre1) asked what Russia wants from its growing relationship with Eritrea, writing that the Putin and Isaias meeting “deserves serious geopolitical scrutiny” because of the Red Sea’s importance.
Eritrea, which has a long Red Sea coastline facing Saudi Arabia and Yemen, has kept close ties with Moscow and was one of the few countries to vote against UN General Assembly resolutions condemning Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s Transport Ministry said Russian companies were ready to consider the projects, but it did not announce any agreement, according to Sputnik Africa.