Addis Ababa — The contractual agreements which Ethiopia enters with neighboring countries for alternative ports will allow economic integration between African countries, President of the Ethiopian Institute for Public Diplomacy in Sweden, Yasin Ahmed said.
In an exclusive interview with the Ethiopian News Agency, Yasin explained that Ethiopia is not the only landlocked country in Africa, but there are some landlocked African countries which have gone through agreements with countries bordering seas.
"Ethiopia is not the only landlocked country in the world. There is Rwanda that contracted with Kenya to benefit from its port, as well as Mali, which used agreements with Senegal, "he said.
He stressed that Ethiopia should make necessary long-term contractual agreements with several ports in the region and develop them for the sake of common interests with countries that have ports.
Ethiopia's ambition to get alternative ports in neighboring countries is legitimate, he said.
"The Ethiopian aspirations are legitimate aspirations in order to obtain ports in neighboring countries.... This is based on the International Law of the Sea, which gives it the right to use the ports...because it is the largest populous country in Africa," Yasin added.
He added as Ethiopia benefits from such ports, other countries will also be able to benefit from the passage of the growing economy and goods via their ports and the huge market of the country, which has a size of 120 million people.
As a large economy and growing population, Ethiopia needs to diversify its alternative ports for its export and import trade, Yasin pointed out.
He further noted that diversifying alternative ports to Ethiopia will contribute to increasing foreign investments, because the investor is looking for easy access to exports and imports for his investment, which also contributes to attracting more foreign direct investment(FDI).
