Ambassador Teshome Toga briefed Ambassador Li Jie – the Vice President of the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs (CPIFA), and the officials of the institute on current internal situation of Ethiopia.
In his briefing, the ambassador explained about the diplomatic relationship between the two countries and the war that the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) group has started again for the third time in the northern part of Ethiopia.
Speaking about Ethiopia-China diplomatic relations, Ambassador Teshome noted that the two countries have a strong relationship in diplomacy, economy, culture, people-to-people relations and in other related cooperation areas, and said that in recent years, their relationship has been elevated to the level of comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership.
Regarding the conflict in northern Ethiopia, the ambassador explained that ignoring the Ethiopian government’s repeated calls for peaceful resolution of the conflict, the TPLF has started the war again for the third time and is committing atrocities on the people of Tigray and the peoples of the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions. He added that the TPLF is recruiting under age children and committing heinous acts, which is a war crime under international law. The ambassador also said that the Ethiopian government is still determined to resolving the conflict peacefully and said, based on the principle of African solutions to African problems, the international community should support the peace negotiation process led by the African Union.
Moreover, the Ambassador stressed that the government of Ethiopia is deeply honored and is very much thankful of China’s support to Ethiopia throughout this challenging time in a show of strong partnership and true friendship.
Ambassador Li Jie, on his part reiterated that China maintains a special place to its relationship with Ethiopia and regards Ethiopia as an anchor of stability in the Horn of Africa. He noted China pays close attention to the issue and that he believes the Ethiopian people have the wisdom to solve their internal problems on their own, and that China opposes any foreign intervention that provokes conflict in the region. Furthermore, he thanked Ambassador Teshome for briefing him about the issue in-person, directly rather than him hearing about it from the media or from other sources.
