Top Italian diplomat arrives in Addis Ababa, meets deputy PM

ADDIS ABABA (SUDANS POST) – The deputy foreign minister and international cooperation of Italy, Marina Sereni, has arrived in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa for talks with senior government officials.

In a statement this afternoon, the Ethiopian ministry of foreign affairs said the visiting Italian envoy held talk this afternoon with the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of Ethiopia Demeke Mekonnen at the headquarters of the foreign ministry.

“Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Ethiopia, H.E. Demeke Mekonnen, had received at his office today (February 28) a delegation led by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy, H.E. Marina Sereni,” the foreign ministry statement reads in part.

Ethiopia’s Mekonnen, the statement said, “thanked the government of Italy for its uninterrupted development cooperation with Ethiopia” and also “appreciated the outstanding construction works of ‘We build’ (former Salini Impregilo) in Ethiopia, a company involved in the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam too.”

The Ethiopian deputy PM, the statement continued, “described all of the positive measures that the government of Ethiopia has been undertaking to peacefully end the conflict in northern Ethiopia and establish long-lasting peace in the country.”

He informed the visiting diplomat that about the “[Ethiopian] federal government’s decision to withhold its troops from entering the Tigray region, the release of high-profile political figures from prison, and the decision to establish the National Dialogue Commission paving the way for national consensus.”

Mekonnen further “stressed Ethiopia’s commitment to peace”, the statement says and reiterated “the federal government’s commitment to act according to the recommendations of the joint investigation of the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission (EHRC) and the UN Human Rights Office into alleged crimes committed in Tigray.”

On her part, the visiting senior Italian diplomat thanked the Ethiopian deputy prime minister and foreign minister “for his briefing on the current situation in the country and for addressing the humanitarian and human rights concerns of Italy.”

Ms. Marina Sereni said her “government appreciates all the encouraging efforts of the government of Ethiopia to build peace in the country” and further said “Italy wants to keep on expanding its development partnership and diplomatic relationships with Ethiopia, an anchor state in the region.”