H.E. Ambassador Teshome Toga is on a working visit to Riga, Latvia to strengthen the bilateral relations between Ethiopia and Latvia.
On 16 November, Ambassador Teshome Toga met with Mr Ojārs Ēriks Kalninš, Head of Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia. Sharing his experience as a speaker in the Ethiopian Parliament, Ambassador Teshome mentioned the irreplaceable role of parliaments in playing an active role in foreign policy of a country by way of parliamentary diplomacy. The Ambassador briefed the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee about the excellent diplomatic relationships between the two countries both bilaterally and at the EU level.
The Ambassador also recalled the MOU signed last year to further deepen the friendly relationship between the two countries via political consultation. Meanwhile, the Ambassador further explained Ethiopia’s economic development and the recent unrest causing loss of life and how the government is striving to address the grievances of the people through massive consultations and engagement. He mentioned the tireless effort of Ethiopia in maintaining the regional peace and security by sending peacekeepers and by hosting over 800,000 refugees. Mr Ojārs Ēriks Kalninš on his turn explained that his country is working towards strengthening its relationships with countries in east Asia, Middle East and Africa. Mr Kalninš mentioned that Ethiopia is a country having a long civilizations and his country has already established parliamentary friendship group to maintain close relationships with the Ethiopian parliament. He has also indicated that the friendship group has already decided to meet with its counterparts in Addis Ababa in 2017.
The two sides have expressed the will to enhance a direct trade relations based on Ethiopia’s comparative advantage of exporting quality coffee and cut flowers and for Ethiopia to benefit from the well established IT sector of Latvia. Both sides have also discussed and agreed to deepen investment and promote people to people relations via tourism. Both sides underlined the need to organize African-Latvian Investment forum with the view of informing the Latvian private sector about Africa’s investment potential.
Meanwhile, both sides have exchanged views related to the EU and other regional and global current phenomenon and agreed to cooperate on the international stage based on mutual interest.
