The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry is currently in contact with its Russian counterpart to organize Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's visit to Russia, hoping that it will happen this year, Mehreteab Mulugeta, the director general for European affairs at the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, told Sputnik in an interview
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st March, 2019) The Ethiopian Foreign Ministry is currently in contact with its Russian counterpart to organize Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's visit to Russia, hoping that it will happen this year, Mehreteab Mulugeta, the director general for European affairs at the Ethiopian Foreign Ministry, told Sputnik in an interview.
Mulugeta held talks with Andrei Kemarsky, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of Africa, in Moscow on Tuesday. According to the Ethiopian diplomat, the potential visit was one of the meeting's talking points.
"Our counterparts from Russia are preparing this, and we were hopeful that the visit will materialize soon. We are in discussion with our counterparts from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia. We want it to happen this year," Mulugeta said.
Asked about Ethiopia's participation in the Russia-Africa summit in October, he expressed confidence that the country would be represented at the highest level.
"There is an invitation, which went to our leadership, to our prime minister. This issue is now with the prime minister's office so they will decide. We don't have any replies so far but definitely at the highest level we will try to participate in the Sochi summit," the diplomat noted.
The idea to hold the first Russia-Africa summit was voiced by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the BRICS meeting in Johannesburg in July 2018. The summit will be held in the resort city of Sochi on October 24.
