Meeting with Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed

On the Russian side, the meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov; Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak; Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Finance Anton Siluanov; Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Maxim Oreshkin; Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office – Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov; Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov; Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Ethiopia and Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian Federation to the African Union Yevgeny Terekhin; Minister of Health Mikhail Murashko; Minister of Economic Development and Russian Co-Chair of the Joint Russian-Ethiopian Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific and Technical Cooperation Maxim Reshetnikov; Director of the Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation Dmitry Shugayev; Adviser to the President Igor Levitin; Deputy Defence Minister Vasily Osmakov; Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces and Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Igor Kostyukov; Deputy Chief of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Andrei Averyanov; Chairman of the Russian Fertiliser Producers Association Andrei Guryev; Director General of Rosatom State Corporation Alexei Likhachev; Director General of the RWB (Wildberries & Russ) international technology company and Chairman of the Russian-Ethiopian Business Council Robert Mirzoyan; and CEO of Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheyev.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: I would like to once again congratulate you on your election as prime minister.

Your country took an active part in the Russia-Africa summits in Sochi in 2019 and in St Petersburg in 2023. Our talks are taking place within the framework of your visit to the Third Russian-African Summit. I would like to thank you for finding the time to come to Moscow on this occasion too.

I appreciate the friendly nature of relations between Russia and Ethiopia and our personal contacts. They have always been substantive and constructive.

And of course, I have fond memories of our recent talks held during the BRICS Summit in New Delhi in September, during which we reviewed our positions on the key aspects of our bilateral cooperation.

I would like to note a substantial growth in mutual trade, which exceeded $1.3 billion from January to September this year. This is more than double the figure for the whole of 2025. We have many large-scale and ambitious projects across various spheres, from energy, agriculture and industrial cooperation to space exploration, science, healthcare and education.

Russia and Ethiopia take a united stand in international affairs. We have developed our dialogue at the UN, BRICS and on other multilateral platforms. We know that in 2027 Addis Ababa will host a UN Climate Change Conference. We wish success to the organisers of this major international forum.

Tomorrow, we will take part in the main events of the summit. Russia provides all-round support to the rise of Africa as a key centre of the new multipolar world order. We will highlight the further development of trade and economic collaboration with African countries, ensuring food and energy security and developing healthcare. Following these meetings, we will approve a declaration of the summit and a new action plan for the Russia-Africa Partnership Forum for 2027−2029.

We have a good opportunity to continue our discussions on the main aspects of the further strengthening of multifaceted Russian-Ethiopian ties, as well as current international and regional issues. We have already started exchanging views on some of them during one-on-one meetings.

Mr Prime Minister, we are delighted to see you.

Prime Minister of Ethiopia Abiy Ahmed Ali: Mr President, thank you for receiving us. I have brought you Medemer in Russian. Medemer is our philosophy of synergy. It guides how we govern, build our economy, and work as partners. I would like to pass it to you.

Mr President, more than 20,000 Ethiopians were educated in the Soviet Union and Russia. Now, Russian leaders can read Ethiopian ideas and Ethiopian beliefs in their own language, and this is a great opportunity to strengthen our bilateral relationship.

Mr President, in Delhi, we discussed our partnership and today I would like us to agree on a few key areas.

The first one is nuclear cooperation. Let us set dates for feasibility work and examine financing options. Training Ethiopian engineers and regulators should proceed alongside that work. I would also like cancer diagnosis and treatment to become a practical priority in our nuclear operation.

Mr President, I would really like to begin with specialist training and enabling access to medical isotopes because nuclear science – not only for energy but also for health – might provide great potential and capabilities for Ethiopia to reduce poverty and increase our energy generation which might help so many developmental sectors.

Mr President, as you have said, we have discussed many bilateral and multilateral issues. We will continue discussing and sharing our perspectives. We will work together for the benefit of our citizens.

We are happy to be working with Russia, and I believe through this process, our bilateral trade will increase significantly. It has gone up this year, but we can go further to increase our bilateral trade because there are lots of opportunities from the Ethiopian side as well.

We would like to send some Ethiopian goods to Russia. If there are no difficulties on your end, we really want to expand our export ties and through this, our historical, cultural, and religious relationship as well.

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