By Mulualem Denbegna
The Annual Conference of Ethiopian Ambassadors, Consuls General and Directors General has been held here in Addis Ababa starting from August 11, 2015. The occasion brought together Ethiopia's diplomatic representatives from all around the world. The Conference has discussed on various issues including on the performance of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the previous year. It also made an evaluation on the activities of Ethiopian overseas missions. The Conference was opened by His Excellency Dr. Tedros Adhanom, Minister of Foreign Affairs, who briefed the participants on the performance of the Ministry over the previous year ranging from significant achievements in the areas of peace, security, trade and investment.
Indeed, the annual conference of Ethiopian diplomats is instrumental to further raise the diplomats' role in the overall nation building process and to exchange valuable experiences helpful in enhancing the image of the country and taking the level of the diplomatic services to new heights. It is also an important occasion as it facilitates the efforts geared towards providing a forward-looking, comprehensive and cohesive diplomatic framework to practice a more pragmatic economic, political and diplomatic cooperation and partnership with the outside world.
For developing nations like Ethiopia, establishing effective foreign relations is of a paramount importance to augment the country's development and democratization endeavours. Over the last 24 years, Ethiopia has managed to maintain fruitful relations with countries in all continents. In addition to exploring new diplomatic missions, the country has succeeded in restoring relations that had been strained during the 17 years of the defunct dictatorial Derg regime. The foreign relations and security policy of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has made it clear that Ethiopia's international relations should be tuned towards promoting the development and democratization endeavours of the country.
In the present-day Ethiopia, the goal of the country's foreign and security policies and diplomacy are aimed at ensuring Ethiopia's national interests and well-being as well as promoting democracy and development. The major basis of Ethiopia's current foreign and security policy is achieving economic development and democracy in the framework of globalization. The policy is also based on mutual benefit, give and take, negotiation and mutual respect rather than advancing unilateral interests. It aims at eliminating or at least reducing external security threats and increasing the number of foreign friends that can help to create a regional and global atmosphere conducive for Ethiopia's peace and security. Ethiopia's diplomatic activity also targets at forecasting potential threats and addressing them through dialogue and negotiation. At present, the country's foreign relation mainly focuses on technology transfer, trade and investments.
Today, Ethiopia has excellent relations with the international community in general and with its neighours in particular exept with Ertirea, which launched an unprovoked flagrant aggression against Ethiopia in 1998. Especially, Ethiopia has been playing a vital role in the Horn's stability and is increasing its involvement in the economic and infrastructure development efforts of the region.
Strong foreign diplomacy is hardly conceivable without a strong diplomatic mission. Diplomats are the ones, who are expected to play a considerable role in implementing a country's foreign policies and strategies. Ethiopia's diplomats are duty-bound to represent the country's interests in a foreign land. They are also expected to be on the forefront in enabling the nation to have amicable and strong foreign ties with nations of the world. In other words, they are assigned abroad to further bolster Ethiopia's relationships with other countries promoting its interests in every aspect of foreign diplomacy. They are also responsible to promote information and cultural exchange as well as friendly relations. In addition, they are entrusted with the lofty task of enabling leaders and peoples of the host countries to better understand Ethiopia's interests. To this effect, they are expected to meet regularly with governments' and people's representatives to build a good relationship and maintain a mutual friendship. They are meant to work closely with representatives of the host country to negotiate treaties that will benefit their country. By maintaining close contact with government officials here, they promote the country's concerns into the negotiations.
Drawing foreign aid and attracting investment to Ethiopia are also other tasks that Ethiopian diplomats are entitled to perform. To this end, the diplomats are required to spend time working out the details of what type of assistance their country needs and monitoring what has been done with the assistance given. They also spend a great deal of their time representing the economic interests of their country. They need to make sure that business development between Ethiopia and their host countries are beneficial to each country. To achieve this goal, they need to have skills in striking mutually beneficial free-trade agreements, as such deals allow for the selling of goods or services between nations allowing the economy of each country to prosper.
Attaching due attention to bring focal issues of the government into action is yet another responsibility bestowed upon our ambassadors. To undertake the aforementioned diplomatic activities effectively, Ethiopian diplomats need to be equipped with the necessary diplomatic knowledge and skills. Cognizant of this fact, the government of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia has been organizing a series of orientations and trainings to enhance its ambassadors' foreign and public diplomacy skills, build the knowledge of the diplomats in the areas of international trade and investment, and sharpen their skills in the area of economic diplomacy so that they can better engage in the emerging competitive global economic order. Fruitful efforts have also also made to help the diplomats be conversant with new era diplomacy tools including digital diplomacy so that they could effectively engage with the overseas public and communicate Ethiopia's vision to the outside world.
As it is known, Ethiopia has registered commendable results in business, trade and economic diplomacy over the past two decades. The country's export trade share grew tremendously as Ethiopian ambassadors and diplomats played key role towards creating market ties. Ethiopian ambassadors also exerted commendable efforts to attract investors to the country and engage in new investment sectors and to create opportunity to attract foreign direct investment.
As stated above, the present-day Ethiopia is doubling its efforts to maintain friendly and peaceful bilateral ties with all nations in general and with its neighbours in particular based on mutual cooperation and benefits. In doing so, Ethiopia has attached due emphasis for the respect of its national interest and security. Along side consolidating its political, economic, social and cultural ties with peace loving and law-abiding neighbouring countries, Ethiopia is also watching an eye on anti-peace and belligerent elements in the Horn that are bent on wrecking havoc and anarchy in the region. Ethiopian diplomats' role in this regard is also high.
To sum up, Ethiopian diplomats can and must play a key role in the nation building process by ensuring speedy development and democratization, building a favourable image of the country, creating foreign market, attracting investment, and reducing risks that pose challenge to the peace and stability of the nation.
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