Addis Ababa, October 24, 2024 (FBC) – Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) met with President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, on the margins of the 16th BRICS Summit in Kazan.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed expressed his gratitude to President Putin for the warm welcome accorded to the Ethiopian delegation by the Russian side. Abiy also congratulated Putin for the success of the BRICS Summit.
The Premier also appreciated Russia for succeeding in maintaining the economic resilience amid pressures.
Abiy also expressed Ethiopia’s commitment to enhance relations with Russia in economic, diplomatic and security spheres.
President Putin, for his part, stated that Ethiopia’s membership to the BRICS+ group is an important step, reaffirming nation’s authority in the international arena.
Russia will continue to promote harmonious integration of Ethiopia in the work of this community of BRICS, Putin affirmed.
“Last year, we marked 125 -year anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Russia and Ethiopia, so we share a rich history of friendship and mutual respect, cultural and historical closeness of our two peoples,” Putin pointed out.
“Over the past year, we’ve seen a steady improvement of relations between our two countries, between our diplomatic missions. Our positions on most matters on the global agenda are close, very much aligned,” Putin underscored.
“We value that Ethiopia supports a lot of Russia’s initiatives at the UN, and we focus a lot on our relations with the countries of Africa,” he said.
This year, Russia is going to hold the first foreign ministers’ conference with the African states, Putin said, adding Chairwoman of the Federation Council of Russia, Valentina Matviyenko will visit Addis Ababa in the upcoming month to oversee the process.
“Now, we also see that trade is on the rise between our two countries,” Putin underscored.
We are ready to continue to improve our partnership with Ethiopia in pharmaceuticals and other industries.
“And we work with our partners by providing them technologies, including lab technologies, equipment, training specialists. And so we help our African partners through international organizations as well,” Putin added.
By Wondesen Aregahegn