Ethiopia: President Taye Bids Farewell As Outgoing Ambassadors Call for Deeper Ties With Ethiopia

What the report says

AllAfrica, carrying a report from the Ethiopian News Agency, said President Taye Atske Selassie held farewell meetings in Addis Ababa on July 28 with the departing ambassadors of Finland, Norway and India. The president thanked Sinikka Antila, Stian Christensen and Anil Kumar Rai for their work in advancing Ethiopia’s diplomatic relationships with their countries and said he expected cooperation to broaden in the future.

According to the ENA report, Antila said her three years in Ethiopia had been valuable and pointed to long-running Finnish-Ethiopian cooperation in areas such as education, rural water, agriculture and digital land administration. She also linked Ethiopia’s economic changes and modernization efforts to potential new partnerships in trade, investment, startups, innovation and technology, citing Finnish companies already active in the country.

The report said Christensen described his four-year posting as rewarding and emphasized Norway’s ties with Ethiopia in climate, forestry and sustainable development. He said cooperation could expand as Ethiopia prepares to host COP32, particularly around the Green Legacy Initiative, forest conservation and livelihoods connected to environmental programs.

Rai, India’s outgoing ambassador, said his two-and-a-half-year assignment had been professionally and personally memorable, according to ENA. He highlighted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Ethiopia and said agreements from that trip were either implemented or moving forward. He also pointed to Ethiopia’s BRICS membership as a factor adding momentum to India-Ethiopia relations and cooperation in multilateral forums. The meetings underscore Ethiopia’s effort to maintain diversified partnerships across Europe and Asia while pursuing investment, climate and development priorities.