Very recently, Ethiopia has been actively engaged in helping out Sudanese people regain stability through its diplomatic alternatives. Dr. Abiy Ahimed was there to bring the militaries and the civil representatives for amicable solution round a negotiation table.
Also the special envoy Mohamed Diril has been working his best for Sudan’s peace true to the Premier’s initiative to ensure peace and stability over the country. This is a short period memory.Not only has this effort, Ethiopia has been discharging its due role in the horn. It exerts an all-out effort towards warranting peace, stability, economic development and good diplomatic relations.
Especially after Ethiopia embarked on the avenue of reform, peaceful deals and economic integration have been taking palpable shape among Ethiopia and its neighbors.With this backdrop in mind, The Ethiopian Herald had approached some scholars about their take on Ethiopia’s dabble towards paving ways to ensure peace, stability, economic development and good diplomatic relationship in the horn African region and to what level these countries are embracing Ethiopia’s thrust towards the fructification of common interests?
Dr. Abebe Aynete, Peace and Security Senior Researcher, notes that Ethiopia has been playing its due role since the outset of the struggle for African freedom. Still, the country is playing quite a role towards the betterment of things in the continent. Ethiopia is a towering country round the horn area having a big economic capacity. It as well as a glaring diplomatic history. Such virtues enable the country to play due role in the area.
Not only that, the country is the diplomatic capital of AU and has an influential role in IGAD. It is a seat of international organizations here in Addis. These opportunities mandate it to play a major role.
The Ethiopian philosophy is that peace of the zone is peace of the country. The country has underlined the mantra swim together or sink together, so it expects added clicking with these neighboring countries, he states.
Abebe stressed that neighboring countries need to stand united towards troubleshooting their problems and promoting their common interests. And they would give priority on peace and security. On the development issue, Ethiopia has already started substantial domain widening tasks on air and land transportation regarding Ethiopia and its neighbors. It should strongly press ahead with keeping alive this good start. Given the positive outcomes witnessed in the horn, the ripple effect will be felt beyond the perimeter of Africa soon.
Sultan Kasim Federalism lecturer at Haromaya University said on his part that these days the world level has reached on interdependent or globalization system. From this relationship, the big bond is the connection between neighboring countries. Currently economic, peace, security and similar relationships have been burgeoning among the horn African countries.
Hence, by the virtue of its being a founder of UN and IGAD, Ethiopia becomes influential in the horn as well as in Africa. Previously, especially in the past one year, the premier of Ethiopia has been doing a big job on political, economic and security issues. The premier has been paying a lot of visits to negotiate with neighbors.
This push of Ethiopia towards good multipurpose relationships will ensure the nation’s benefits and neighboring countries’ common advantages. For Ethiopia to participate in this movement, it needs to have more acceptances internationally. It will develop African countries’ relationship with their neighbors’ economic connection, he stated.
Adding, he said Ethiopia has been playing due role in the peace keeping process with Eretria, South Sudan and Sudan. On the other hand, the economic integration and common port management and infrastructure development tasks it is handling with Djibouti, Somalia and Eretria is a demanding job that deserves laudation. With this effort, Ethiopia has been successful and we can see more successes soon.
Sultan said International relation’s basic significance lies in a common advantage. Every country has its own different interest, so the countries’ integration is mandatory and without their integration they cannot achieve their goal single handedly. Any country cannot stand aloof. So every neighbor has to espouse Ethiopia’s effort for a turnaround.
“Previously, the relationship of the countries has been commonly confined to peace and security. But currently, as this disposition is not plausible, attention is given to the economic integration. Especially establishing the African Common Market system will be effective if economic and infrastructural integration keep up. Together, we can overcome our common poverty, insecurity and instability,” he stated.
Pertaining to the aforementioned issues, Kahisay Gebirehiwot Political Science and International Relation Lecturer at Axum University has some reservations. Ethiopia has been playing vast and good roles individually as well as a member of different organizations. The nation also has best stands regarding the horn. Despite this situation, Ethiopia cannot play better role or it will have not enough capacity to play more roles in the region.
As to him, the country first needs to address its internal unrest to integrate and support other neighbors in the future. The internal politics problem will challenge it to not contribute more to others countries, he added.
The Ethiopian Herald, June 30/2019
BY GENET FEKADE
