The President of the Republic of Guinea, Professor Alpha Condé, arrived in Ethiopia for a three-days working visit on Wednesday (February 6). During his visit, President Alpha Condé held talks with President Sahle-Work Zewde on bilateral, regional and international matters. Ethiopia and Guinea signed a Strategic Partnership Agreement and held the first meeting of the Joint Ministerial Commission.
Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed received President Conde on arrival at Bole International Airport, and during their bilateral meeting the two leaders discussed on ways to consolidate the relationship in all areas of cooperation in a spirit of mutual benefits. Their talks covered issues of mutual interest, focusing on the need to reactivate existing bilateral mechanisms and to expand cooperation in the areas of social and economic sectors in the spirit of friendship and solidarity between the two sisterly countries.
Welcoming the President, Prime Minister Dr. Abiy expressed his belief that the visit would pave the way for realizing their common thoughts for strengthening and deepening already existing strong and historic ties. Ethiopia and the Republic of Guinea have longstanding relations, dating back to the 1960s, when President Sekou Toure, supported Emperor Haile Selassie’s efforts to reconcile the Monrovia and Casablanca groups in the course of establishing the OAU. Dr. Abiy applauded their respective efforts in the struggle against colonialism and apartheid, in promoting a Pan-Africanist vision and bringing together the diverse peoples of African continent.
Prime Minister Abiy said the existing friendship between the two countries served as the foundation for strengthening Ethio-Guinea relations. President Condé commended Prime Minister Dr. Abiy for the reforms being undertaken in Ethiopia and the democratization processes he is currently spearheading. He also acknowledged his role in untying the knot that had kept Ethio-Eritrea relations stalled. The two leaders also witnessed the signing of a Strategic Partnership Agreement by Foreign Minister Dr. Workneh for Ethiopia and Foreign Minister Mamadi Toure for Guinea, allowing for the establishment of a joint ministerial commission, and a series of other agreements on agriculture, air services, health, science and higher education, as well as culture and tourism were also signed.
The first meeting of the Ethio-Guinea Joint Ministerial Commission meeting was held during the visit. The delegations were led by the respective Foreign Ministers and attended by other high-level officials. It offered the opportunity to discuss ways of strengthening bilateral cooperation, particularly on areas including education, agriculture, health, tourism, mining, aviation, among others. Dr. Workneh told the first meeting of the Ethio- Guinea Republic Joint Ministerial Commission meeting that he was satisfied with the general and bilateral relations between Ethiopia and Guinea and the way they supported each other’s agendas in multilateral venues. He added: “We need to explore mechanisms to evaluate and follow up the implementation of our existing agreements and the MoUs in different sectors between our two countries.” The Minister stressed the need to enhance people-to-people ties between Ethiopia and Guinea, and to further scale up cooperation on continental peace and security issues, as well as enhance investment promotion, capacity building, livestock sector links, mining and geology. He underlined that both countries were committed to diversifying their bilateral trade and investment ties, as well as establishing cultural and tourism exchange programs.
During his official visit President Conde and his delegation visited Ethiopian Airlines facilities in Addis Ababa; and made a visit to the Eastern Industrial Zone, at Dukem in Oromia Regional state, sharing Ethiopia’s experience in the investment and aviation sectors and identifying areas for future cooperation. In 2016 Former Prime Minister Hailemariam Dessalegn visited Guinea and signed an aviation service agreement; last year Ethiopian Airlines also agreed a strategic partnership in management, maintenance and training with Guinea Airlines.
