Ethiopia–Finland relations

Finland-Ethiopia relations are foreign relations between the Finland and Ethiopia. Both countries established diplomatic relations on July 17, 1959. Ethiopia is represented in Finland through its embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. Finland has an embassy in Addis Ababa.

Finland-Ethiopia relations
Map indicating locations of Finland and Ethiopia

Finland
Ethiopia

History

The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs traces the relationship between the two countries to the 1950s when Finnish missionaries first came to Ethiopia. In March 1984 the two countries signed a Memorandum on Development Cooperation. In 2003, the Finnish Foreign Minister, Erkki Tuomioja, visited Ethiopia.[1]

Finnish assistance

Ethiopia is one of Finland's long-term partners in economic development and in the water and education sectors.[2] Finland began bilateral development cooperation with Ethiopia in 1967. Development cooperation was suspended during the Ethiopian Civil War in 1991–93, and again in 1998–2000 during the Eritrean-Ethiopian War. Finland, like other donors, did not make any new cooperation commitments in 2005 as a result of the violence following the parliamentary elections, but did resume cooperation at the previous level in 2007.[3]

On 29 April 2009, the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development announced that the Finnish government had made a grant of 11.4 million Euros to enable the Benishangul-Gumuz Region upgrade its capacity of planning and managing its rural water supply and sanitation program to achieve universal access for all Ethiopians.[4] On 28 July 2009, the Finnish Ambassador, Kirsti Aarnio, praised Ethiopia's effort to pull itself out of poverty by achieving successive economic growth. She described their trade as Finland importing coffee, spices and leather from Ethiopia, while Ethiopia buys in various high-tech products from Finland. She also stated that ample opportunities existed where the two sides can boost cooperation in the areas of environment, information technology, telecommunication services and energy.[5]

See also

References
  1. "Bilateral relations" Archived March 25, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs website (accessed 28 July 2009)
  2. Finland and Ethiopia Archived 2014-12-18 at the Wayback Machine, Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs website (accessed 10 August 2009)
  3. Development policy: Ethiopia, Finnish Ministry of Foreign Affairs website (accessed 10 August 2009)
  4. "Ethiopia, Finland sign 11.4 million Euro grant agreement" Archived 2009-05-03 at the Wayback Machine, Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) (accessed 29 April 2009)
  5. "Finland vows to continue support to Ethiopia", ENA (accessed 1 November 2009)
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