Addis Ababa, September 2, 2023 (FBC) – Ethiopia’s Accession to BRICS opens a “new and promising field of cooperation, the Ambassador of Brazil to Ethiopia, Jandyr Ferreira dos Santos, said.
Recall Ethiopia’s bid to join the emerging-markets bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) was endorsed at the 15th BRICS Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. Ethiopia was one of the 6 countries that was allowed to join the bloc.
In an exclusive interview with ENA, Ambassador of Brazil to Ethiopia Jandyr Ferreira dos Santos said the BRICS mechanism possesses a series of interlinked initiatives, such as the New Development Bank, the BRICS Business Council, the BRICS Women’s Business Alliance, and many others.
It promotes exchanges in areas such as media, culture, education, sports, arts, youth, civil society, academia, science, technology & among others, according to the ambassador.
To this end, he said that Ethiopia’s accession to BRICS opens a new and promising field of cooperation.
“Ethiopia will now take stock of what has been accomplished by the BRICS in each of these areas and start contributing its own initiatives and perspectives. We look forward to working with Ethiopia in this regard,” the ambassador stated.
Moreover, the ambassador said Ethiopia’s accession will bolster the BRICS’s call for inclusive multilateralism, respect for international law, and reform of the multilateral political and financial institutions, where all of them are dear to the developing world, and have long been defended by both Brazil and Ethiopia as individual countries.
“I believe that the rising interest in the developing world about the BRICS, as evidenced by the large number of countries that approached us willing to join the group, demonstrate that there is a positive momentum in the defense of these causes within the broader international community,” he indicated.
As a member of the BRICS in the near future, Ethiopian views and expertise on many issues raised here will be shared within the group, Ambassador Santos pointed out.
This will strengthen both the BRICS and Ethiopia to open new avenues of cooperation as discussions unfold, he said, adding “I’m very optimistic about the future of South-South cooperation within the BRICS and about the bilateral Brazilian-Ethiopian relationship as a whole.”
Speaking on the bilateral relationship between the two countries, the ambassador said Ethiopia and Brazil have enjoyed friendly relations for over 70 years.
“We have a fluid bilateral dialogue on all major global and regional issues, with very important common positions, in particular on the need for the developing countries to play a more important role in the world arena,” ambassador elaborated.
Trade and investment ties are growing where the daily flight of Ethiopian Airlines connects São Paulo with Addis Ababa, the ambassador said, adding there are many cooperation programs in place in areas of common interest, such as agriculture, in which Brazilian expertise can promote Ethiopian production
He said “we are evaluating other possible partnerships such as in sports diplomacy, an area for example in which we in Brazil stand to learn from the remarkable Ethiopian successes in athletics.”
In a nutshell, there is a wide and growing agenda between the two countries for the common benefit of our peoples, he noted.