Djibouti President, Ismail Omar Guelleh, sent a special message to Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed on Thursday. The contents of the message have not been made public. Interestingly, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, earlier this week, sent a special message to the Amir of Qatar.
The letter containing special message from Djibouti President was handed over to the Ethiopian PM by Djibouti Foreign Minister Mamahoud Ali Youssouf. PM Abiy in a statement acknowledged the message from the President of Djibouti.
“I welcomed Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, the Foreign Minister of Djibouti, to my office this morning. Minister Youssouf came bearing a message from President Ismail Omar Guelleh. Such exchanges serve as vital channels for dialogue and cooperation, fostering mutual understanding and collaboration on bilateral and regional matters of shared interest,” the Ethiopian Prime Minister said.
It seems that the special message by Djibouti President is about Ethiopia Somaliland MoU. Ethiopia and Somaliland are gearing up to implement the MoU which would lead to Ethiopia diverting a big chunk of its cargo to Somaliland ports.
Landlocked Ethiopia has been, for the last three decades, using Djibouti’s ports. But last year, the Ethiopian Prime Minister announced that Ethiopia wanted to diversify its use of ports. Ethiopian state media accused Djibouti of minting money by charging high fees to handle Ethiopian cargo. Djibouti rejected Ethiopian claims in official statement.
Djibouti’s economy relies a lot on the revenue generated from handling Ethiopian cargo. But Djibouti has been hesitant to reduce port use tariffs or offer lease agreement to Ethiopia.
It seems that Djibouti is offering a new deal to Ethiopia by lowering port tariffs and a lease agreement which Ethiopia wants. It remains to be seen if the new offer from Djibouti would stop Ethiopia from implementing MoU with Somaliland or not.
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