The declaration of the government’s will was made by the Minister of State for International Affairs, Mesganu Arga, in a meeting with the Russian ambassador, Yevgeny Terekhin.

According to the communiqué, Arga affirmed that Ethiopia “appreciates its historical and friendly relations” with Russia and “emphasized the importance of diversifying the collaboration.”

Both officials reviewed the implementation of the memoranda of understanding signed in recent years and agreed to establish a program for the active review of bilateral agreements.

They also discussed how to revitalize the Ethiopia-Russia Ministerial Commission and issues related to the Second Russia-Africa Summit and Economic Forum, to take place in St. Petersburg between July 26th and 29th.

Terekhin commented that the transfer of technologies, as well as energy and food security, will be some of the important points of the summit, which he described as an essential extension of the first meeting.

The first summit was held in October 2019 in Sochi, in southern Russia, under the motto “For peace, security and development”.

llp/jcm/raj