Ethiopia’s Foreign Policy Accords Less Deliberation to Neighboring Countries: PM

Addis Ababa January 15/2019 Ethiopia’s foreign policy did not accord crucial deliberation to the neighboring countries, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said.

The Premier added that the foreign policy of the country is under comprehensive review in consonance with the national and international realities.

Prime Minister Abiy briefed representatives of Ethiopian missions abroad and diplomats in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the topic “Trends in International Relations and Ethiopia’s Foreign Policy” on Monday.

Regional and international realties that prevailed when the country formulated its foreign policy and security objectives have undergone a lot of changes, he said.

The Premier said as the inward focused foreign policy of Ethiopia stressed on national wellbeing of the country and this will be further enhanced in the future.

He stated the policy of non-interference into the internal affairs of countries and the special focus made on economic partnership and cooperation is encouraging and should be further pursued.

According to the Prime Minister, the less emphasis made on the relationships with neighboring countries bypassing them and focusing on the association with countries far-off cannot bring about the desired level of the fulfillment of the country’s foreign policy objectives.

He added that the goals indicated in the foreign policy objectives are blurred and immeasurable recurrently.

The issue of national security and foreign policy are unnecessarily combined together in the previous policy document, he said.

Abiy hinted on the need for formulating a separate security policy which emanates from the fact that threats that are obvious at one point in time can be reversed on changing conditions.

He noted that issues related to social media and cyber technologies that were not included in the previous document will be considered accordingly.

Ethiopia’s Foreign Relations and National Security Policy and Strategy was put into effect since 2002.