The Russian Foreign Ministry has expressed its rejection of attempts to link its military cooperation with Ethiopia with the dispute of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), calling for not politicizing the dam issue. The ministry stated that the Russian-Ethiopian cooperation in the military technical field “is based on a governmental agreement for defense cooperation.”On 12 July, Russia and Ethiopia inked a military cooperation agreement at the conclusion of three-day deliberations of the 11th Ethiopia-Russia military technical cooperation joint meeting held in Addis Ababa. Russia stressed in the Friday’s statement that the military agreement “doesn’t have any destabilizing character,” indicating that it “maintains similar joint cooperation with a number of other countries, including Egypt and Sudan." Later, the Ethiopian foreign ministry said a win-win solution “is still within reach, but we cannot sign a final agreement”. The UN body held earlier this month a session on the GERD in an attempt to settle the dispute over the near-complete dam.

Source: Ethiopian News July 24, 2021 11:37 UTC