In a renewed commitment towards bilateral partnership and joint strategic development, Ethiopia and Eritrea have resolved to reopen land borders.
After the two-days of regular, consultative, meetings of both countries’ leaders in Asmara, the two sides issued statements on Friday.
In his statement, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed announced that Ethiopia and Eritrea will continue strengthening their bilateral relations and economic cooperation ambitions. “We will continue building on the spirit of trust and good neighbourliness between our two countries as embarked upon in 2018.”
The premier restoring trust among the Tigray State of Ethiopia and fellow Eritreans across the border remains pertinent.
Other areas of coopeartion broached are in the spheres of energy development, electricity interconnection as well as logicstic cordridor develeopment.
Recalling the TPLF rocket attacks in Asmara, Ahmed said that the
Eritrean government was provoked and forced to cross Ethiopian borders to prevent further attacks and maintain its territorial integrity.
“In our March 26, 2021 discussions with President Isaias Afwerki during my visit to Asmara, the government of Eritrea has agreed to withdraw its forces out of the Ethiopian border and the Ethiopian National Defense Force will take over guarding the border areas effective immediately.”
Eritrea’s Ministry of Information stated that extensive consultations between the two leaders focused on bilateral partnership and the joint strategic development programmes on the offing within the framework of broader regional prospects and perspectives vicious military attacks unleashed in the past five months, and attendant disinformation campaigns were also assessed in depth.
The two countries also agreed to hold follow-up consultative meetings in Addis Ababa.
In a related development, Minister of Innovation and Technology Abraham Belay, who is a member of the Ethiopian delegation to Asmara, told reporters that the leaders have reached agreement to resume the people-to-people relations of the two countries border communities.
