Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn held talks with Mahmoud Abbas, President of the State of Palestine and Sudanese Premier Bakri Hassan Salehon today, on the margins of the 29th AU Summit here in Addis Ababa.
In his discussion with Abbas, Prime Minister Hailemariam said Ethiopia is keen to see the problem between Israel and Palestine be solved peacefully through dialogue and discussions.
Abbas for his part lauded Ethiopia's remarkable economic growth. He expressed his interest to strengthen economic cooperation with Ethiopia and suggested to hold a Joint Ministerial Commission meeting.
The Premier also received today Sudanese Prime Minister Bakri Hassan Salehon.
Both sides reiterated the need to further strengthen the long-standing Ethio-Sudanese ties with more concrete and practical cooperation.
They have also agreed to expand the horizon of the bilateral ties in areas of trade, investment, banking and people to people relations.
Moreover, the Premier conferred with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdel al-Jubeir.
They discussed on bilateral, regional and international issues of common interest.
The two sides agreed to continue to work together to enhance their bilateral ties thereby ensure mutual benefits to the peoples of both countries.
In a related development, Deputy Prime Minister, Demeke Mekonnen, received Vice President of Sudan, Hasabo Mohammed Abdul Rahman at his offices today.
The two sides took note of the already excellent relationship between the two friendly countries.
Both sides described the high-level commission meeting as a key platform to strengthen the bilateral relationship, which they said was instrumental to advance the ongoing projects of regional integration, including power connectivity, road and railway networks as well as ports.
In connection, they have agreed to convene the next high-level commission meeting very soon. They have also reaffirmed their commitment to work more closely on fighting terrorism, extremism and dealing with cross-border infighting.
They further agreed to work in concert in the maintenance of regional peace and stability, and to solve the problem in South Sudan under the IGAD framework.
On the occasion, Demeke commended Sudan for its positive and scientific stance on the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).
According to MoFA, Sudanese Vice President for his part praised the support rendered by the Government of Ethiopia at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in the course of Sudan’s endeavor to reunite with the international community. -(FBC)