Donald Yamamoto (Amb.) the US Acting Assistant Secretary for African Affairs discussed with Ethiopian officials over bilateral, regional and other mutual interest areas such as terrorism, peacekeeping, democracy and human rights in the Horn of Africa in particular and in Africa in general.
Yamamoto arrived in Addis Ababa on Thursday April 26, 2018 for a two-day official visit.
Prior to his arrival to Addis Ababa, he was on an official visit to neighboring countries Eritrea and Djibouti. Earlier yesterday, he met with Foreign Affairs minister, Workneh Gebeyehu (PhD), and discussed over a range of issues and the two sides agreed to cooperate on bilateral, regional and continental issues of mutual interest.
After discussing with the Ethiopian foreign minister, Yamamoto said that the United States gives great attention to its all-rounded relation with Ethiopia. He further stated that his country is keen to work together with the Horn of Africa countries particularly in the areas of trade and investment.
Regarding his recent visit to Eritrea, the ambassador confirmed that he discussed Ethio-Eritrea relations and said that “those are the discussions I would like to talk about with the PM first, but when I get back to Washington I will have more comments on it.”
Workneh on his part highlighted on the long-standing and strong relation between Ethiopia and the United States. He went on to say that the visit by Yamamoto also shows the courtesy given by the US for its diplomatic relation with Ethiopia.
The minister also stated that, the visit by the deputy assistant secretary comes at a time where peace and stability has been restored in the country. He added that ‘energy and aviation’ are the potential areas of cooperation between the two countries.
Apart from this, Workneh also briefed Yamamoto about the reform activities the government of Ethiopia is currently undertaking after assigning the new prime minister.
Initially, The Reporter was informed by the spokesperson of MoFA, Meles Alem, that the press briefing between the two will be conducted earlier on Friday and then received another notification stating the time of the press conference was changed to 3:00 pm in the afternoon the same day.
Though the Reporter received such alerts from the spokesperson, the press briefing was conducted according to the scheduled plan and not 3:00 pm. Hence, The Reporter was forced to miss the press briefing as the Office of the Spokesperson failed to notify the right time.
However, The Reporter was invited by the American Embassy for the briefing but was denied a chance to raise questions to Donald Yamamoto during the press conference.
