Addis Abeba – The Council of Ministers (CoM) in its Fifth regular meeting held on Saturday March 19 approved a draft bill on military cooperation agreements with the Republic of Turkey, including agreements on joint military exercises and anti-piracy collaboration. The bill is subsequently sent to the House of Peoples Representatives (HoPR) for review and approval.
According to the statement from the CoM, Turkey and Ethiopia have been close friends for centuries and that Turkey has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to Ethiopia as an ally in need. Accordingly, the three agreements signed between Ethiopia and Turkey during the visit of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to Ankara in August 2021 were presented to the Council and discussed.
The CoM said that the goals of the agreements were, among others, to create a framework for cooperation in education and training, joint military exercises, defense industry construction, cyber-attack prevention, peacekeeping, military financial cooperation, and anti-piracy campaigns.
Similarly, the same meeting by the Council of Minister has also approved other bills including National Financial Inclusion Strategy, loan agreement with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IED)for rural financial system improvement program; the Georgetown Agreement, which revised the agreement between the Caribbean and the Pacific countries; four Draft Regulations to Prepare Payments systems for services to provided by Civil Society Organization Authority, Federal Police Commission, Immigration and Citizenship Services and Information Network Security Administration; and six draft bill establishing the Ethiopian Sugar Industry Group as well as Wonji/Shewa, Metehara, Fincha, Kessem and Beles sugar factories and refered the bills to the HoPR for review and approval. AS
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