The Austrian Foreign Minister's visit to Ethiopia
The Austrian Foreign Minister H.E. Dr. Michael Spindelegger was in Addis Ababa from 14 – 16 July 2009. He had the opportunity to meet Ethiopian as well as African Union officials. His presence in Addis was for both bilateral and multilateral reasons.
His counterpart, Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin, was not in Addis, having left earlier for visits to Israel and the Palestine Authority to be followed by a trip to Sharm El Shiek to take part in the Non Aligned Movement (NAM) meeting of Foreign Ministers. On the bilateral side, in the absence of his counterpart, the Austrian Foreign Minister had a meeting with Ato Sufian Ahmed, Minister of Finance and Economic Development, and had a working breakfast with Dr. Tekeda Alemu, State Minister of Foreign Affairs. The Minister also visited projects supported by Austria in the Amhara Regional State.
During the meeting with the Ethiopian Finance Minister, the two Ministers exchanged views on the impact of the current global economic crisis, particularly on developing countries like Ethiopia. They also discussed the existing partnership between their two countries and they were satisfied that it is moving in the right direction.
During the working breakfast with Dr. Tekeda Alemu, the discussion focused on political and regional matters of common interest. As his country is a non permanent member of the UNSC, the Austrian minister was particularly keen on listening to Ethiopia's views on regional issues in the Horn of Africa. Accordingly, the State Minister gave him detailed briefing on the current situation in the region. He briefed him also on current political developments in Ethiopia, particularly about the national effort in building democratic institutions including the prospect for the 2010 elections.
While this was what transpired during the visit, a fictitious news report appeared on various websites quoting from a certain Austrian Times, with a headline "Austria rejects Ethiopia's calls for more assistance."
This strange story was brought to the attention of the visiting Minister during the working breakfast. The Austrian Minister was genuinely surprised for it was clear to both sides that there was no request and no rejection on the issue of development assistance. In this regard, any serious observer would note that development partnership requests do not just pop up at a ministerial meeting as reported in this bogus story. Development partnership is indeed a serious business which requires detailed negotiations at various levels before it is tabled for Ministers for political decision making.
- MFA
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