Ethiopia and Qatar mending bilateral relations

borkena
December 20,2016

Regime in Ethiopia seem to be forging alliances with more countries from the Arab world. Not long after signing various agreements with Saudi Arabia, foreign minister of Qatar was in Ethiopia to sign agreement in a range of areas.

Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani met with Mulatu Teshome, president of Ethiopia, and Worqeneh Gebeyehu, who is now foreign minister.

According to report by state media in Ethiopia, discussion focused on investment and cooperation in the area of security and international relation.

In terms of investment, Qatari foreign minister is quoted by Ethiopian Broadcasting Corporation (EBC) as saying “road-map to identify viable projects will be prepared in the next three months.” The projects are said to be of “mutual benefit.”

Diplomatic relation between Qatar and the regime in Ethiopia was broken in 2008 on grounds of alleged Qatar support for terrorism. It is not clear as to what exactly encouraged the regime in power to restore diplomatic relation with Qatar at this point in time.

Worqeneh Gebeyehu, whose career background is mainly in intelligence and police before he was transferred to ministry of foreign affairs last month, vowed to improve relation with Qatar.Eleven bilateral agreements and MoU are signed between the two counties, according to Anadolu Agency report.

Prime minister Hailemariam Desalegne visited Saudi Arabia towards the end of last month and there were divergent speculations as to why his government opted for forging alliances with the Arab world after the popular anti-government movement in Ethiopia. Financial reports from Ethiopia seem to suggest that the regime in power is in dire shortage of foreign currency to finance various projects and is even unable to pay for imports.

After the popular movement that led to the state of emergency in Ethiopia, the regime promised to “rejuvenate itself” in a way address demands that the regime perceived to be of economic nature. Egypt was partly implicated in the internal instability in Ethiopia.

Qatari foreign minister visit to Ethiopia came three days after Saudi Arabian envoy visited Ethiopia. During their stay in Ethiopia, Saudi officials visited the Renaissance Dam construction site -something that infuriated Egyptian authorities. Egypt and Ethiopia have unsettled controversy over Ethiopia’s construction of what is said to be over $billion dollars worth of dam over the Nile.