The U.S. and Ethiopia have agreed to step up cooperation in the fields of security, economy and democratization, U.S. President Barack Obama declared at a joint press conference in Addis Ababa held Monday with the Ethiopian prime minister.
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South Sudan is facing an August 17 deadline to accept a peace and power-sharing agreement, though US officials say they’re pessimistic a deal will be reached.
It is rare for a president to address domestic controversy while on a foreign trip, but Obama was asked about the increasingly hysterical tone of the campaign trail discourse while on a visit to Ethiopia.
Later in the day Obama will convene a meeting with regional leaders about the devastating civil war in South Sudan. During a visit here to the Ethiopian capital, he will meet with regional leaders to try to build a consensus behind a peace proposal, and to come up with a backup plan in case that fails involving increased sanctions and possibly an arms embargo.
He also called on Hailemariam to improve Ethiopia’s record on human rights and good governance.
Princeton Lyman, U.S. special envoy for Sudan and South Sudan from 2011 to 2013, noted that when he first took over as envoy, the United States had spent $10 billion on peacekeeping and other assistance for the two nations, “and that was four years ago…”
He said Ethiopians feel obligated to follow the constitution, and pay attention to how other governments have opened up.
The country’s ruling coalition won a sweeping victory in parliamentary elections in May that Western nations criticized as unfair.
“There is still more work to do, and I think the prime minister is the first to admit there is still more to do”, Obama said.
The crowd was always going to be onside, but Obama was in typically inspirational form when he visited Kenya this weekend, the country where his father was born.
Obama also met with Ethiopia’s president Mulatu Teshome.
Hailemariam, for his part, said, “Our commitment to democracy is real, not skin deep”. Any action will be likely led by the African Union in partnership with the U.S.
But Obama appeared to frustrate human-rights groups when he twice referred to Ethiopia’s government as “democratically elected”.
“We don’t need to send our own Marines in to do the fighting”, the US President said.
Addis Ababa: President Barack Obama is trying to make sure that South Sudan, the country his administration helped give birth to, doesn’t die before he’s done – or become a lingering disaster that will haunt him long after he’s left office.
South Sudan’s rival leaders – President Salva Kiir and rebel leader Riek Machar, who will not be at the meeting – effectively face an ultimatum, a “final best offer”, according to one senior administration official.
“In 18 months, I’m turning over the keys”, Obama said. “The parties have shown themselves to be utterly indifferent to their country and their people – and that is a hard thing to rectify”.
Obama seemed suspicious, even as he urged observers to put the same standards of how America relates internationally on smaller countries like Ethiopia as it does on bigger ones that Washington is forced to deal with, such as Russian Federation or China.
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After his stop with Lucy, the president attended a State Dinner with Prime Minister Desalegn and President Teshome, where he toasted to “another century of friendship” between the two countries and highlighted Ethiopia’s most important gift to the world: coffee.
